.1
I
5
REPRINTS OF ECONOMIC CLASSICS
An Essay On The Distribution Of Wealth
and on the sources of taxation
AN
ESSAY
On The
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
And On The
Sources of Taxation
By
RICHARD JONES
[1831]
REPRINTS OF ECONOMIC CLASSICS
Augustus M. KelleVy Bookseller
New Tork ig64
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number
64 - 24343
Printed in the United States of America
AN
ESSAY
ON THE
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH,
AND ON THE
SOURCES OF TAXATION.
Part I.— RENT.
AN
ESSAY
ON THE
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH,
AND ON THE
SOURCES OF TAXATION.
BY THE
REV. RICHARD JONES, A.M.
OF GONVIIXE AM) CAIU8 COLLEGE, CAMBRIDG£.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET,
M.DCCC.XiXI.
CAMBRIDGE:
Pkintbd by John Smjth,
Printkr to the University.
PREFACE.
The causes of the varying wealth and poverty
of nations have naturally at all times attracted
the eager attention of mankind. For a long time,
however, it was thought that there was nothing
in the subject very difficult to understand : that the
only way for a people to get rich was to procure
money or bullion, and that the only way to get
poor was to part with them. The art of enrich-
ing nations obviously consisted, therefore, in devising
the means, first, of getting possession of as much
of the precious metals as possible, and then, of
holding them fast so as to keep the heap ever grow-
ing.
It is in the different measures, or rather systems
of measures, successively adopted to effect these
purposes, that we must trace the rude but very
decided political economy of the ages which elapsed
between the conquest of England and the middle
of the last century.
For some time, however, before this later period,
there may be discerned, meandering through the huge
a
n PREFACE.
and obscure mass of our mercantile literature, a dim
line of twilight truth upon these subjects; — a sus-
picion rather hinted at than revealed, that after all,
the accumulating gold and silver might not, when
nations were in question, be the only mode of in-
creasing their real wealth. But still it was not till
Galiani in Italy, Harris in England, Quesnay in
France, and above all Smith in Scotland, had pub-
lished their respective works, that it became ad-
mitted to be an established principle, systematically
examined and demonstratively proved, that national
wealth may consist not only of gold and silver, but
of all such things at least as men are content to
give gold and silver in exchange for.
The circumstances which encourage and make
easy, or which discourage and obstruct the produc-
tion of wealth, taking this new and enlarged view
of it, became at once the objects of anxious en-
qmry and speculation. In this new path Smith
took the lead; and nothing which has been done
since his time in this direction, will bear a com-
parison with the results of his labors. But to those
engaged in the pursuit of this branch of political
economy, another soon presented itself. It was
not possible to investigate carefully the circum-
stances which affect the production of national
wealth, without being struck by the importance and
influence of those which are connected with its
PREFACE. Ill
distributiou : and attempts to discover the laws which
determine the respective shares of the landed pro-
prietors, the owners of personal property, and the
laborers, in the annual produce, gave occasion to
a great deal of research, or rather perhaps a great
deal of speculation. Such speculations were pur-
sued the more earnestly, when it was perceived, as
it necessarily soon was, that the power of nations
to support and render productive peculiar forms of
taxation, could be little understood, till the laws
were developed which determine the respective
shares of the various classes of a community in the
wealth annually created.
But the labors of those who have treated of
the principles which govern the distribution of
wealth, have as yet been rewarded by no such suc-
cess as that which has crowned the efforts of those
who have investigated the circumstances which in-
fluence the amount produced. On this last branch
of the subject, much knowledge has been accumu-
lated, and principles have been established, import-
ant both for theoretical and practical purposes, how-
ever difficult the application of them to particular
circumstances may sometimes be. These constitute
a body of political truths, in the solidity and per-
manence of which a majority of the enlightened
and reflecting part of mankind may be said to have
acquiesced : while attempts to explain the appointed
rt2
IV PREFACE.
course of the distribution of wealth, and to unfold
the laws which limit and determine rents, wages
and profits, have hitherto led to little besides con-
tradictory opinions; and startling, and in some in-
stances, unhappily, disgusting and most mischievous
paradoxes.
The germ of the doctrines of the earliest lead-
ing writers on these points, the French economists,
may be traced pretty clearly to some hasty, and cer-
tainly very erroneous opinions, of our own great
Locke. That sect of philosophers at last fancied
they could rigidly demonstrate, that a portion of
the rent, (the produit net,) constituted a peculiar
fund, from which alone all the revenues of the state
must directly or indirectly be derived; and this
strange and futile dogma came from their hands
based on reasonings and assumptions, from which
it appeared to result that the amount of wages,
and the rate of profits, are determined by causes
which keep them beyond the reach of change, and
preserve them untouched amidst the workings of
any possible scheme of taxation. Mixed with some
absurdities, and much rash and sophisticated reason-
ing, the writings of the economists contain many
truths ; and some of a high order and lasting im-
portance : but even these could not save their repu-
tation ; and by being interwoven in a mass of error,
were for a time less current, and therefore less
PREFACE. V
useful, than they must otherwise have been. The
system found, it is true, some devoted and fana-
tical adherents ; but in spite of the zeal of these
supporters, and of its own theoretical plausibility,
the instinctive judgement of mankind revolted from
its strange conclusions ; and by the great body of
the reading world, it was first derided, and then,
except as occupying its spot in literary history, for-
gotten. Smith attempted little on this part of his
great subject, and that little he did not do well :
but his good sense kept him aloof from absurdities,
like those which disfigure the works of some who
preceded, and of many who have followed him : and
the caution with which he shrunk from plunging
deep into the investigation, shews, perhaps, that
he was conscious of difficulties which he chose to
avoid. Of him, however, it may be said with truth,
that he had done as much as could be expected from
one mind, when he had illustrated, applied, con-
nected and multiplied the truths which before his
time existed insulated, and for the most part half
developed, on one main branch of his subject. That
subject too we know was itself at once elevated
by the success of his work to a rank among the
great objects of the intellectual efforts of man-
kind, which it is little likely ever again to lose;
and which, we must hope, will, at some future day,
ensure the devclopement of all its intricacies.
VI PREFACE.
Mr. Malthus was the first philosopher, after
Smith, who laid foundations for the farther pro-
gress of knowledge. The earliest distinct views of
those laws which govern the revenues of the landed
proprietors, and the wages of the laborers in the
most advanced stages of civilization', will always
be to be traced in his works on population, and
on rent: and enough will remain to leave him the
character of a powerful and original enquirer after
truth, when time and the labors of many other
minds have corrected some essential errors, and
some hasty extensions of principles, — true in them-
selves, though of more local or limited application,
than amidst the fervor of discovery they appeared
to their author to be. But Mr. Malthus has been
singularly unfortunate in his successors ; under their
treatment, his works, instead of being made the
foundations of a superstructure of useful truth, have
been used to give the semblance of plausibility to
a mass of error, ingenious and harmless in some of
its parts, but as a whole, most delusive, and unfor-
tunately most mischievous.
On the subject of rent, Mr. INI al thus, discard-
ing the errors of the economists, shewed satisfac-
torily, that where land is cultivated by capitalists
' As far as rent is concerned, the late Sir Edward West
ought to share this praise.
PREFACE. Vll
living on the profits of their stock, and able to
move it at pleasure to other employments, there
the expence of tilling the worst quality of land
cultivated determines the average price of raw pro-
duce, while the difference of quality on the supe-
rior lands measures the rents yielded by them.
This was a step towards understanding the cir-
cumstances which affect the progress of a very
limited division of rents, and the causes which in
one very peculiar state of society determine the
average prices of raw produce. Mr. Ricardo, how-
ever, overlooking altogether the limited extent of
the field to which these principles were really appli-
cable, undertook from them alone to deduce the
laws which regulate the nature and amount of the
revenue derived from land at all places, and under
all circumstances ; and not content with this, pro-
ceeded from the same narrow and limited data,
to construct a general system of the distribution
of wealth, and to explain the causes of variations
which take place in the rate of profits, or amount
of wages over the surface of the globe. Mr. Ri-
cardo was a man of talent, and he produced a system
very ingeniously combined, of purely hypothetical
truths; which, however, a single comprehensive
glance at the world as it actually exists, is suffi-
cient to shew to be utterly inconsistent with the
past and present condition of mankind.
VIU PREFACE.
Mr. Malthus' theory of population has been yet
more lamentably abused. With the commanding
influence of superior talent, he had fixed at once
the attention of the world on a physical power pos-
sessed by the human race, of multiplying its aggre-
gate numbers ; which, if long exerted to its greatest
extent, or even to a much less extent, must demon-
stratively outstrip any possible increase of food ; and
he had shewn that much of the happiness or misery
of a large part of the population of nations, must
always depend on the extent to which this power
is controlled by themselves, or on the modes by
which population is kept down to the level of food
by extraneous circumstances. The facts on this sub-
ject, which he brought to light, must always hold
a prominent place in every enquiry into the causes
which determine the social progress and condition
of nations : and the most prominent place in such
branches of those enquiries, as have for their espe-
cial object, the explanation of the laws which govern
variations in the aggregate numbers of a people, and
the amount of subsistence consumed by the great
mass of every community ; or in other words, its
rate of wages. But to create and to perfect such
an important department of human knowledge, was
hardly likely to be the lot of one man, and the
great work of Mr. Malthus contains certainly the
elements of many errors, mixed with the portion
PREFACE. IX
of lasting truth which it was his fortune first to
demonstrate. Those errors had their origin — partly
in a logically defective division of the checks to
population which he enumerated and examined, —
partly in some obscurity and indecision existing in
his own mind, as to the amount of influence on
the progress of the numbers of nations, which might
in practice be expected to be exercised by moral
causes acting in opposition to the physical propen-
sities of mankind.
It is the perilous privilege of really eminent
men, that their errors, as well as their wisdom,
should be fertile in consequences. Those of Mr.
Malthus led at once to forms of argument, and to
a phraseology, which cast a gloom over the whole
subject, and have had a very disastrous effect on
the further progress of knowledge : — more disastrous
indeed, than could possibly have been anticipated
by any one not gifted with the power of foresee-
ing the strange combination of credulity and rash-
ness which characterises many of the works in which
his speculations have been pushed forwards to their
supposed practical conclusions.
Taking together the two subjects of rent, and
of population as it affects wages, we shall find that
the germs of truth brought to light by Mr. Mal-
thus, have been made to give apparent support to
such doctrines as these: — That the revenues of the
X PREFACE.
proprietors of the soil over the surface of the globe,
exist only because the qualities of different soils
are different; and can only be increased as the dif-
ferences in productiveness of the soils cultivated
increase : — That this increase is always contempo-
rary with a decrease in the productive powers of
agriculture, and in the gains of the productive
classes, and comes ever with loss and distress in
its train: — And that the interests of the land-
lords which require such an increase, are, therefore,
always and necessarily opposed to the interests of
the state, and of every other class of society. The
fortunes and position in the ordinary progress of
nations, of the owners of stock, the next leading body
in communities, are decided on in a spirit scarcely
less gloomy. The effects of that diminution in the
productive powers of industry, which is supposed to
be indicated by increasing rents, reach, it is said,
the owners of capital, in the shape of a dwindling
rate of profits; and thus their own remuneration,
and their capacity to accumulate fresh funds for
the employment of labor, are always in a necessary
course of gradual diminution, while cultivation is
spreading itself to new soils, or multiplying its
means and efforts on the old. Of the two richer
classes, therefore, the one is threatened that the
increase of the people, and the spread of tillage,
will bring to it an invidious wealth founded on the
PREFACE. XI
public distress, and the other is menaced with a
gradual but inevitable decay, produced by the same
causes, and advancing at the same pace.
The fate revealed to the most important division
of the population, to the great body of the people,
was yet more appalling. In their case a further
cause, and one dependent, like the decreasing fertility
of the soil, on an unchangeable law of nature, was
pressing them unceasingly towards either misery or
guilt. They were endowed, as a part of their phy-
sical constitution, with a power and tendency to
multiply more rapidly than the means of subsist-
ence; and their numbers could be kept down to
the level of those means, only by checks which re-
solve themselves into either guilt or misery, or into
a pure state of moral restraint, which, according to
the unhappily narrow definition of it given by
the author of the doctrine, was necessarily so rare
as to limit but little by its prevalence the wide
action of suffering and vice. This last opinion
really rested principally on a logical error before
alluded to, in the division of those causes into
which the admitted checks to population resolve
themselves; but it was seized on and pushed to
its most repulsive consequences with a headlong
and pernicious eagerness, and served to augment
the fearful amount of those elements of discord and
suffering, which it was believed had been demon-
XU PREFACE.
strated to exist in the very constitution of man, and
of the earth which he inhabits ; and which, accord-
ing to this school of writers, are necessarily called
into a state of increasing action as the world be-
comes peopled and nations advance. The process
by which these conclusions were arrived at, involves,
in truth, almost every possible fault to which in-
attention to facts, and a perverse abuse of the mere
reasoning faculty can give birth. First, there is
assumed a constantly decreasing power in agricul-
tural industry, as nations multiply and become more
civilized : then, that those who procure subsistence
by manual toil, the laboring classes of the earth,
are maintained exclusively on funds saved from
income ; — a supposition which, true as to one corner
of the world, when stated and reasoned upon as an
universal fact, is essentially false and delusive : —
and then, to these primary and fatal blunders, is
added a notion, that the diminishing rate of profit
observable as nations become numerous and rich,
indicates a decreasing power of accumulating fresh
resources ; a belief which could not be embraced
for an instant, without an almost wilful disregard
of experience, and of the testimony which the his-
tory and statistical position of every country in the
world bear to the laws really determining the vary-
ing powers of communities to accumulate capital.
But the theoretical unsoundness of these doctrines.
PREFACE. XIU
glaring as it must be to all who are in the habit of
subjecting theoretical views to the test of facts, was
thrown into the shade by the fearful daring exhi-
bited in the practical inferences to which they have
been pushed. The supposed continuous diminution
in the returns to agriculture, — its assumed effects on
the progress of accumulation — and then, by an er-
roneous inference from a fact itself false, a corres-
ponding incapacity in mankind to provide resources
for increasing numbers — these points having been
first insisted on with a dogmatical air of scientific
superiority, an apparent inconsistency between the
permanence of human happiness, and the natural
action of the laws established by Providence was
enforced. It was darkly, but confidently and sedu-
lously hinted at, that the most cherished moral
feelings which guide the human heart, were, after
all, only a mass of superstition which it might
be hoped would decay with the progress of philo-
sophy; that means were in reserve, and ready to
be circulcated, of eluding the passions implanted
by the Creator in the original constitution of the
human race; and that thus at last human wisdom
might be made to triumph over defects in the phy-
sical arrangements of Providence. Over the daring
details with which this miserable philosophy was
invested — its enduring robe of shame — and over the
circumstances by which it was brought into actual
XIV PREFACE.
contact with a part of the population, we must here
draw a veil. But that the theoretical advocacy
of these visions has, to a certain extent, tainted
the moral feeling of a portion, we may hope a small
portion, of the educated classes, — that their indus-
trious dissemination by ready agents, worthy of the
task, has begun the vile work of effecting self-degra-
dation, and extinguishing all sentiment of moral
dignity or worth, among a part of the lower orders, —
are facts, which all familiar with the subject, know
to be unhappily beyond the reach of doubt- And
it is important that we should not underrate the
mischievous moral effects and consequences of a
superficial system of philosophy, when we are about
to recommend those laborious and united efforts
necessary to lay the wide foundations of that body
of wholesome truth on these points, which we hope
to shew may be safely and solidly constructed.
But although they have had their appropriate
sphere of mischief and delusion, it would be a mis-
take to suppose, that any of the doctrines we have
been alluding to have met with a general recep-
tion. Philosophers rushing forwards to uncoil a
theory, may sometimes be observed shutting their
eyes on the corrections offered by the world they
live in ; but mankind at large have different habits,
founded on sounder views of the mode by which
great general principles are to be detected amidst
PREFACE. XV
the confused action of many causes. It wants no
great deal of logical acuteness to perceive, that
in political economy, maxims which profess to be
universal, can only be founded on the most com-
prehensive views of society. The principles which
determine the position and progress, and govern the
conduct, of large bodies of the human race, placed
under different circumstances, can be learnt only
by an appeal to experience. He must, indeed, be
a shallow reasoner, who by mere efforts of con-
sciousness, by consulting his own views, feelings
and motives, and the narrow sphere of his personal
observation, and reasoning a priori, from them ex-
pects that he shall be able to anticipate the con-
duct, progress and fortunes of large bodies of men,
differing from himself in moral or physical tem-
perament, and influenced by differences, varying in
extent and variously combined, in climate, soil,
religion, education and government. But with the
first appeal from the speculation of individuals to
the results of experience, as presented by bodies
of men really existing, all belief in such maxims
on the distribution of wealth, as those of which we
have been speaking, must vanish at once. As soon
as we withdraw our eyes from books to consult the
statistical map of the world, it shews us that the
countries in which the rent of land is highest, in-
stead of exhibiting always indications of a decline
XVI PREFACE.
in the efficiency of agriculture, are ordinarily those
in which the largest populations are maintained in
the greatest plenty by the exertions of the smallest
proportion of their laboring hands. The decline in
the rate of profit, which it is admitted may be
observed in the advance of population and wealth,
is so far from being seen to be accompanied by
a decreasing productive power of industry in any
of its branches, that in countries in which profits
are low, as England and Holland, there industry
is found in the most efficient state, and the rate
at which capital is accumulating is the most rapid.
On the other hand, in those countries in which
the rate of profit has been long and permanently
high, as in Poland, and many of the ruder parts
of Europe and Asia, there the productive power
of industry is almost proverbially feeble, and the
rate at which capital is accumulating notoriously
slow. These are facts which lead directly to the
conclusion (of which a careful analysis of the various
sources of accumulation will sufficiently shew the
soundness,) that high profits, with a great pro-
ductive power, and a rapid rate of accumulation,
are, in the history of mankind, an exception and
not the rule.
Again, looking at the rrte of increase of the
different orders of the population of any one coun-
try, it is seen at once, that the higher and middle
PREFACE. XVll
classes, that is, those classes which have an almost
unlimited command over food and all the means
of a healthful subsistence, remain single more fre-
quently, marry later, and increase more slowly,
than those whose means of subsistence are more
scanty ; and comparing afterwards nation with
nation, a similar fact forces itself upon us ; and
we see populations, whose means are compara-
tively ample, increasing less rapidly than those who
are confessedly most wretched. These facts indi-
cate at once, to an unprejudiced observer, the
presence and influence, among communities of men,
of causes which coming into action during the pro-
gress of plenty and refinement, serve to moderate
the exercise of man's physical power of increase',
and are not resolvable evidently into misery, and
almost as evidently, not into unmixed vice, or into
a faultless state of moral restraint. The perception
' We shall not be supposed to refer to the law of nature
proclaimed by Mr. Sadler, according to which the fecundity of
females is diminished as population becomes dense. Of this
we shall have a few words to say hereafter. It is enough for
our present purpose to shew, that the glance even of a hasty
observer must detect the existence of such moderating causes
as we are now speaking of, and see them to be distinct from
misery, vice, or a faultless moral restraint. To shew the na-
ture of those causes, to throw light upon their details, to ex-
hibit the manner in which their action is felt in different stages
of civilization, and in communities differently organized — this is
a serious task, the successful execution of any part of which
Ij presupposes
XVHl PREFACE.
of this fact is of itself sufficient to inspire distrust in
those dismal systems which teach that the whole
human race is under the resistless dominion of an
impulse, forcing ever its aggregate numbers for-
wards to the extreme limit of the subsistence they
can procure; and that even wealth and plenty
are only forces which impel communities gradu-
ally, but inevitably, towards want.
Between the fortunes, then, and varying rela-
tive position of the different orders of society, as
seen in the ordinary progress of civilization, — and
the gloomy fate, the constant tendency to decline,
the imceasing opposition of conflicting interests, as
exhibited in the later theories of political eco-
nomy:— there exist essential differences and con-
tradictions which must strike even a superficial
observer, who thinks it worth while to recur to
facts at all.
It is in vain to deny, that from this, and
perhaps from some other causes, a feeling of dis-
like to the whole subject has been creeping over
a portion of the public mind. Political economy
has been distrusted. The facts on which its con-
clusions must be founded, have been thought too
presupposes wide and patient observation, and very cautious in-
ferences. A portion of that task will be hereafter attempted,
with a very deep sense both of its importance and its intricacy.
PREFACE. XIX
multitudinous, too variable, and too capricious in
their combinations, to admit of their being accu-
rately observed or truly analyzed ; or, consequently,
of their yielding any safe permanent general prin-
ciples: and men have been inclined to shrink from
the task of even examining opinions, which they
have thought doomed only to startle without con-
vincing, and then to disappear, and give place to
another crop of paradoxes.
This alienation has had an unkindly effect on
the growth of knowledge, and has turned away
from the labors necessary to promote its progress,
many of those, whose minds were the best gifted
with the power of eradicating error, and advancing
truth. But a little thought must surely shew, that
the distrust earnt by many who have treated of the
subject, has unjustly been extended to the subject
itself.
It must be admitted that political economy
must found all maxims which pretend to be uni-
versal on a comprehensive and laborious appeal to
experience; — it must be remembered steadily, that
the mixt causes which concur in producing the
various phenomena with which the subject is con-
versant, can only be separated, examined, and
thoroughly understood by repeated observation of
events as they occiu-, or have occurred, in the his-
tory of nations; and can never be submitted (ex-
h 2
XX PREFACE.
cept in cases extremely rare) to premeditated
experiment; — and we must not shrink from the in-
evitable conclusion, that the progress of knowledge
on such a subject must be difficult and slow^ ; and
that, almost in exact proportion to the extent of
the field to be observed, and the complexity and in-
tricacy of the results presented by it. Still even
these considerations, while they afford abundant
ground for caution, afford none at all for despair.
On the contrary, to a mind well instructed in the
ordinary road, which inductive science has travelled
towards perfection, the very abundance and variety
of the materials on which we have to work, give
rational ground for steadfast hope.
The progress of navigation and the spirit of ad-
venture; a thirst for knowledge, gain, or power; have
laid open the structure of society over the far greater
part of the surface of the inhabited globe : and we
can now embrace in one wide survey, the influence
of that structure on the wealth and happiness of com-
munities of human beings, from their rudest to their
most advanced states, and under all their varieties
^ See in the Appendix some observations by Mr. Herschel,
on the different rates of progress of those sciences which are de-
pendent on mere observation for their materials, and of those in
■which experiment can be resorted to. I Iiave Mr. Herschel's
leave to use these observations here, although it is possible that
they may not be actually published before tliis work is out.
PREFACE. XXI
of form. To this vast living field of actual obser-
vation, the universal story of past times adds
another, scarcely less extensive. It is true, that
the facts which best illustrate principles in any
branch of knowledge, are little likely to be care-
fully recorded, before some glimmering perception
of the principles themselves exists. Hence a neg-
lect in the historians of past days to preserve
whole classes of facts which would now be most
precious to the philosophical enquirer; and hence,
doubtless, in our own times, there pass away daily
into oblivion, unnoted by traveller or chronicle, a
multitude of events and circumstances, which the
more full developement of our present subject will
hereafter shew, to have been rich in unheeded in-
struction. But still, careless or imperfect as have
been the observations of contemporary writers, the
wide range of history teems everywhere with facts,
which may, with care, be made to enlighten or
correct us in our pursuit. The past and the pre-
sent, then, concur in offering to us an abundant
harvest of materials for the construction of a system
of economical truths, which shall be securely founded
on the actual experience of mankind. If we ob-
serve these materials thoroughly, and infer from
them with modesty and caution, it would be mere
intellectual cowardice, to despair of gaining sound
knowledge in all the departments of political eco-
XXll PllEFACE.
nomy. Difficult as the task may be, we may well
hope thus to obtain at last a distinct view of the
laws, according to which the produce of their land
and labor is divided among the several classes
which compose communities of men, under all their
varieties of form and circumstances ; and of the ex-
tent to which the influence of peculiar modes of
that division is felt, when reacting on the produc-
tive powers, as well as on the political and moral
character and structure of nations.
Nor ought the passing theories, which have
successively been adopted and disappeared on these
branches of political economy, to daunt our hopes
for the future. There has obviously been repeated
here an error, which has been committed so fre-
quently in the pursuit of other objects of human
attainment, that the very effort of exposing it
has become wearisome. The warning voice of the
great prophet of that wisdom which man earns as
"the servant and interpreter of nature \" has
again been raised in vain. Men have preferred the
way of anticipation to that of i?iduction^; they have
shrunk from the inevitable conditions, the appointed
labors, by which knowledge can alone be safely
acquired; in their effort to establish general princi-
' Nov. Org. Ap. 1.
* Nov. Org. Ap. 26. to 30. and passim.
PREFACE. XXUl
pies, they have quitted too soon the duty of dwell-
ing long and humbly among things, that they might
prematurely take up the more fascinating employ-
ment of laying down those maxims of imposing
generality, which seem to elevate the enquirer at
once into the legislator of his subject, and gift
him, as if by some sudden manifestation of intel-
lectual power, with an instant command over its
remotest details.
Truth has been missed therefore, not because
a steady and comprehensive survey of the story and
condition of mankind would not yield truth, even
on this intricate subject, but because those who
have been the most prominent in circulating error,
have really turned aside from the task of going
through such an examination at all : have confined
the observations on which they founded their rea-
sonings, to the small portion of the earth's sur-
face by which they were immediately surrounded;
and have then proceeded at once to erect a super-
structure of doctrines and opinions, either wholly
false, or, if partially true, as limited in their appli-
cation as was the field from which the materials
for them were collected \
^ An instance of this which looks almost like wilfulness (re-
lating however to a doctrine of inferior importance) occurs in
a little work on political economy by M. Destutt de Tracy, a
metaphysical writer of deserved eminence in his own department
of literature. It is curious, because the fault is ushered in by
a formula
XXIV PREFACE.
The work of which the following pages forrtl
a part, has been constructed on a different plan,
with more humble pretensions, and with an aim
less lofty, though it is hoped not less useful, than
that of those who begin by laying down axioms
which command the whole subject. My object has
been to get a sight of the principles, which go-
vern the distribution of the wealth annually pro-
duced by the lands and labor of the human race ;
and of the effects produced by the action of those
principles among bodies of men existing under dif-
ferent circumstances. And this I have endea-
voured to do, under the guidance of an abiding
assurance, that the experience of the past and
present, can alone, on such a subject, afford any
sure foundations for anticipations as to the future.
a formula which seems meant to serve for its justification in that
and all similar cases. After stating his individual experience, as
a proprietor in different parts of France, he says, " quand on a
" ainsi un champ suffisant d'observations, ou gagne plus a les
" apprqfoudir qu'a les etendre;" and then upon the strength of a
maxim so consolatory to indolent speculators, he proceeds to an-
nounce as an universal law, that metayer cultivation is peculiar
to bad soils, " c'est le propre des mauvais pays," a position, the
utter fallacy of which must have become immediately apparent
to M. Destutt de Tracy, or indeed to any inquirer very much his
inferior, if he had luckily adopted the plan of' extending his ob-
servations to other districts, countries, or times, instead of that
of speculating pro/butidli/ upon a limited stock of facts. Traite
D'Economie Politique Par M. Le Comte Destutt de Tracy, &c.
pp. 122, 123. and note. What M. de Tracy lias done in one
point, others have done in whole systems, as wc shall see.
PREFACE. XXV
I have begun by analysing rents, because a
small progress in this subject was sufficient to
shew, that the greater part of the nations of the
earth are still in that state which is properly
called agricultural ; that is, in which the bulk of
their population depends wholly on agriculture for
subsistence: and because in this state of society,
the relations between the proprietors of the soil
and its occupiers determine the details of the con-
dition of the majority of the people, and the spirit
and forms of their political institutions. While
tracing the circumstances to which rents owe
their origin, or those by v*^hich they are affected
in their progress, there have been first marked
out and examined a few extensive and very dis-
tinct classes of tenantry, into which the occupiers
of the cultivated surface of the globe soon shew
themselves to be divided. An endeavour has
next been made to throw light on the forms
and conditions of the contract between the pro-
prietors and the cultivators, which are peculiar
to each of these classes, and on their distinct
eflFects in the societies in which they prevail,
whether economical, political or moral. While tra-
velling through this wide examination, some im-
portant principles have been developed, which are
applicable to the whole mass of rents taken in the
most general point of view.
XXVI PREFACE.
The next, and yet more important division of
the* annual produce, is that which is consumed as
the wages of labor: and it is taken in the second,
instead of in the first place, only because a clear
perception of the causes which affect the amount of
the remuneration received by the majority of the
laborers in the world, (the peasant cultivators,) can
only be attained after sl survey of the forms and
conditions of the various rents they pay.
In enquiring into wages, I have begun by ap-
pealing to the experience of the past and present
to teach, first, what are the funds which support
the laboring population of the globe: secondly,
what are the laws by which the numbers of those
who are to share those funds are determined.
Uniting the results of these two branches of
enquiry, we may attain from them a knowledge of
the circumstances which determine the condition
and prospects of those various and distinct classes
of laborers, which a careful view of the whole
surface of human society brings before our notice.
Enumerating first the funds from which labor
is supported, it has been shewn that they are va-
rious and different, and that of these various funds,
that which is saved from income, and is most ap-
propriately called capital, is only one and the least.
In approaching the subject of the numbers of
those who are to share these funds, the whole
PiiEFAOji:. xxvii
subject of population presents itself, and the task
cannot be avoided, of examining both the laws
which determine the power of the human race to
increase its aggregate numbers, and those by which
the exercise and effects of that power are con-
trolled. To apply however the results of this
general review to our immediate subject of wages,
it will be necessary to recur to those different
funds for the support of labor, the origin and
limits of which will have been already analysed;
•
and to shew by a reference to the story and con-
dition of the different divisions of mankind sup-
ported out of each of them, what are the peculi-
arities in the nature of those funds, which the
most materially affect the habits of the laborers;
and through these, stimulate or control their dis-
position to increase.
The laws which determine fluctuations in the
numbers of the laboring classes, and in the amount
of the funds devoted to their maintenance, once
explained, the circumstances which determine the
rate of wages in the different stages and forms of
human society will be before us. After such a
preparation, and with a proper knowledge of the
actual statistical moral and political condition of
particular communities, we may apply our know-
ledge of general principles with some confidence,
whether for the purpose of explaining their present
XXVUl PREFACE.
position, or of anticipating the future course of the
mass of their population.
It is upon the same plan of eliciting principles
from the most comprehensive survey it is in our
power to make, of the mass of human society in all
its details and varieties, that the share of the an-
nual produce allotted to the owners of capital has
been investigated. In performing this task, I have
net confined myself to those circumstances alone
which affect the rate of profits, but have consi-
dered the growth of the ma^is of profits as a point of
equal or indeed superior importance. With a view
to understand fluctuations in each of these quanti-
ties, I have examined in the world, as it lies spread
before us, the various and gradually multiplying
functions of accumulated stock. They have been
traced, first, in those rude tribes or nations among
whom the savage may be discerned fashioning his
weapons, or the cultivator, with a scanty stock mak-
ing the first imperfect attempts at tillage ; and thence,
through many an intermediate grade, to those more
brilliant theatres of industry and the arts, in which
mankind may be observed, enriched by the successive
accumulations of many generations, as well as by their
own ; and exercising by the aid of these a command-
ing and increasing productive power, whether employed
in unfolding the resources of the earth, or in fashion-
ing the material world to their purposes.
PREFACE. XXIX
At each step of this progress, society is seen
to receive a fresh impression and an altered form.
To detect the laws which determine these changes,
we shall watch the growth of the capitalists, and
observe them at first scarcely distinguishable as
a peculiar body; then separating themselves slowly,
from the mass of laborers or landowners with
which they were before confounded; assuming a
gradually increasing share in the direction of na-
tional industry; and influencing at last (in a few
instances) in the most marked and decisive man-
ner, not only the productive powers, but the social
and political elements of nations. In the progress
of this survey, there will have been marked the
'various sources gradually multiplying and enlarging
themselves, which yield the successive additions
made to the existing stock of accumulated wealth.
We come then to the causes which determine
the proportion which the annual revenue allotted
to its owners bears to the mass of accumulated
wealth employed, that is, which determine the
rate of profit: and while tracking the changes
which take place in this, as communities became
more full of wealth, we shall, from the results of
our previous survey, have been placed in a posi-
tion to explain a phenomenon, the existence of
which, (however contrary to doctrines lately cur-
rent,) the instances of our own countr), and of
XXX prp:face.
a few others, will be seen to put beyond the reach
of cavil or doubt : — namely, the increasing national
power of rapid accumulation, which is seen to ad-
vance hand in hand with a decreasing rate of
profits.
Rents, Wages and Profits thus examined, the
last division of our subject will be in sight, " The
sources of Taxation^ We shall here appeal first
to history and facts, to dissipate the error which has
led more than one sect of reasoners* to teach, that
some portions of the wealth annually produced and
distributed, are marked by the peculiarity of yield-
ing no revenue to the state, and that their receivers
are unconsciously gifted with a power of throwing
back on other classes the impositions nominally
laid upon them. Tracing society then once more
through its many forms and many stages, we shall
endeavour to point out what in each is the nature
and amount of the revenue drawn by the state
from the incomes of the laborers, the landowners,
or the capitalists. We shall then attempt to ob-
serve the limits of the financial fruitfulness of each
class; and to determine the points, at which an at-
tempt to press further upon a single division, ends
in a real burthen upon one or both of the others.
• Locke and the Economists as to Profits and Wages ;
Ricardo (more partially) as to Wages.
PREFACE. XXXI
Viewing then the revenues of the community
as a whole, it may perhaps be practicable to esti-
mate how far the state may share in the joint
wealth of its subjects, without causing production
to retrograde : and where the limits are, beyond
which all attempts to extract from a people a per-
manent public revenue fail, and if persevered in,
serve only to impoverish the sources of wealth.
Most assuredly it is not even hoped that so
large a field as that of which the outline has
just been sketched, has been fully explored in one
survey, or all its harvest of instruction reaped.
But however much may remain to be done, it is
cheering to reflect that whatever knowledge is thus
elicited by a legitimate and careful reference to
experience cannot deceive us.
Even by the present imperfect effort, enough at
least of knowledge has been so obtained, to de-
monstrate the error of those gloomy notions of a
perpetual discord between rival interests in society,
and of an inevitable tendency to ultimate decline,
which it has been the evil triumph of the spe-
cious reasonings lately inculcated on these sub-
jects, to make, to a certain extent, plausible and
current. We shall see first rising up before us
in all parts of the globe this prominent and un-
questionable fact; — that under no form or modifi-
cation of the relations between the proprietors and
XXXll PREFACE.
cultivators are the permanent interests of the land-
lords opposed to those of the community at large.
We shall observe circumstances and ties gradually
unfolding themselves, which in every stage and
form of civilization, completely identify the real
interests of the owners of the soil with those
of society; and make the permanent and progres-
sive growth of the revenues of the landed body,
not only consistent with, but dependent on, the
prosperous career of their tenantry, and of the com-
munity to which they belong. Next, that fall of
the rate of profits which is so common a pheno-
menon as to be almost a constant attendant on
increasing population and wealth, is, it will be
seen, so far from indicating greater feebleness in any
branch of industry, that it is usually accompanied
by an increasing productive power in all, and by
an ability to accumulate fresh resources, more
abundantly and more rapidly \ So far, therefore,
is this circumstance from being, as it has hastily
been feared and described to be, an unerring symp-
• If the prepossessions of any reader should lead him at
once to treat this statement as paradoxical, let me beg of him
to turn his eye to the growing powers of production and accu-
mulation displayed by England during the last century, and to
compare them with those of the countries in Europe in which
profits have continued the highest. The review must, I think,
at least produce patience to wait for the demonstration which is
promised, of the truth of the statement in the text
PREFACE. XXXUl
torn of national decay, that it will be shewn to
be one of the most constant accompaniments and
indications of economical prosperity and vigor.
Turning, then, to that part of the animal con-
stitution of mankind which makes an extremely
rapid increase of their numbers possible under cer-
tain circumstances, (which has been the cause of
yet more formidable apprehensions,) it will be seen
that it is an error to suppose that the consequences
of this power of increase present any real obstacle
to the permanent ease and happiness of any class
of society.
But before we proceed with the little we have
to say on this subject now, there are a few pre-
liminary observations to be made. The states of
society from which the principles here developed
are collected, are such as are found actually ex-
isting over the surface of the earth. Some portion
of misery and vice therefore will meet our view
at every step, and of these a part may doubtless
be traced to the consequences of man's animal
power of multiplying rapidly his kind. Nay more,
while the world exists, considerable suflPering arising
from this cause will always probably be to be met
with. So far therefore the sufferings which can be
traced to this source, like those produced by the
earthquake or the storm, belong to a course of
events which we may not flatter ourselves we shall
c
XXXIV PREFACE.
ever be able wholly to arrest. Both have their
origin in the physical constitution of the creation.
As a consequence of this view of the power of mul-
tiplication, it has been truly stated, that those per-
sons who do not see in evils produced by purely
material causes any thing inconsistent with the
benevolence of the Creator, act very idly in being
indignant with others, who assert the constant pre-
sence of a certain quantity of suffering and evil,
which is produced by causes of a mixt character,
partly moral and partly physical, such as those are
which influence the growth of the numbers of man-
kind. But then we must not be led too far by
this analogy. There are important distinctions be-
tween evils produced by the action of mere material
causes, and those evils, in the production of which
man is himself an agent. In the one case the
amount of evil to be endured is certain and un-
avoidable, and the individual sufferers cannot escape
their doom. In the latter case the average amount
of evil may be indefinitely diminished by human
efforts, and no individual sufferer is necessarily a
victim.
The earthquake and the storm do their ap-
pointed work, and man can hardly produce a per-
ceptible influence on the amount of their ravages,
or the fate of the sufferers. Now it must be al-
lowed that the passions which lead to vsTong and
PREFACE. XXXV
violence, are as much a part of the Creator's work,
as the obscure causes which produce physical con-
vulsions. But then the average amount of wrong
or violence may be diminished indefinitely by the
institution of good laws, and by the greater pre-
valence of sound morals : and no individual robber
or murderer is recognized to be a fated victim,
compelled to be such by providence itself. These
two important reflexions go very far to remove both
the gloomy and the depraved tendency which some
have perversely persisted in affixing to all admis-
sions of the constant presence of a certain quan-
tity of moral evil. If we apply a similar distinction
to the case of communities, and to the peculiar
class of evils we are now considering, we shall
find in the statistical history of nations, satis-
factory indications of this truth, that although cases
of national suffering caused by superabundant
numbers, may be traced to the animal constitution
of man, and so to the physical structure of the
universe, and will probably always prevail to some
extent ; still that, first, the average amount of those
sufferings may be repressed indefinitely by human
effort, and by the re-action of moral causes; and
then that no one community is necessarily doomed
to endure any portion of such suffering at all.
This view of the subject is evidently full of cheer-
ful promise to all enlightened and well-governed
C2
XXXVl PREFACE.
societies, as it is too of plain instruction to indi-
viduals, whom it very clearly warns, that their aim
and wisdom must ever be to fulfil their own duties,
and follow up their own chances of happiness
steadily, without casting furtive glances towards
the general mass of evil, as a source of either per-
plexity or excuse.
These considerations once understood, we may
proceed; and it will be obvious, that since the
subject of population as connected with wages must
occupy an important portion of our enquiry, it will
be our business to appeal to the experience of
mankind as contained by the past story and pre-
sent condition of its various branches, and to collect
thence a knowledge of the circumstances which in
different forms and stages of society, contribute to
the prevalence of moral controul over the powers
of increase. The results of such a survey will be
found to be these. Viewing the subject first as
it affects the human race generally, and with no
reference to wages, we shall see that the dispo-
sition to exert the full animal power of increase
yields readily in the upper classes, to the accu-
mulating force of various motives for restraint, which
necessarily multiply and gather more joint strength,
with the growth of those artificial wants the fruit
of wealth aud refinement. Limiting our observa-
tions then to the laborers, in the less advanced
PREFACE. XXXVll
stages of society, we shall observe a great influence
exercised over the industrious classes by others, which
controls the exercise of their full powers of increase :
and when those ruder stages are passed through,
and the lower classes are, like the higher, aban-
doned wholly to the guidance of such motives as
may spring up within their own bosoms, we shall
again, in their case, have to trace the eflFects of
refinement and the multiplication of artificial wants
gradually influencing the whole mass, as they
always influence the upper portion of society. And,
where the gradual spread of refinement does not
produce the effect of moderating the rate of in-
crease of the mass of a population, we shall be
able to trace the failure to unfavorable peculiarities
in the circumstances, or in the legislation of
nations.
During this survey, we shall have abundant
opportunities of observing, that those natural and
wholesome causes of retardation which come into
general action with the spread of increasing pros-
perity are never found necessarily accessory to the
increase of vicious habits; much less dependent on
them. The providence which implanted in the
heart of man his feelings as to right and wrong,
will never be found to act so inconsistently with
its own purposes ; as to make pollution and crime
means for attaining, or retaining, the happiness
XXXVlll PREFACE.
of mankind. On the contrary, the portion of
voluntary restraint necessary to produce such an
influence on the progress of numbers, as calculation
may shew to be rationally desirable, in any stage
of society, will be observed introducing a long train
of wholesome consequences, and among them much
dignity, energy, and intellectual and moral purity
and elevation. These, after a fair balance has
been struck, will be seen very far to outweigh
that portion of evil, which (such is the condition
of humanity) will in this, as in all other cases,
be found mingling itself among the consequences
of the wisest institutions of our race, and of the
best and most exalted feelings and passions of our
nature.
When we have advanced so far with our ex-
amination of the phenomena which regulate or
follow the distribution of the annual produce into
rent, wages, and profits, we shall at least have shewn
that the deep gloom which was thought to over-
hang much of the subject, was but an illusion ;
that no causes of inevitable decay haunt the for-
tunes of any class during the progressive deve-
lopement of the resources of a country; that the
interests of no portion of society are ever perma-
nently in opposition to those of any other ; and
that there is nothing either in the physical consti-
tution of man, or in that of the earth which he
PREFACE. XXXIX
inhabits, that need enfeeble the hopes and exertions
of those to whom the high, and if properly under-
stood, cheerful and animating task is committed,
of laboring, through wise laws and honest go-
vernment, to secure the permanent harmony and
common prosperity of all classes of society.
But these general views are but a portion, though
in the present state of public opinion, they are per-
haps not the least important portion, of our sub-
ject. There remain to be developed and explained
a variety of minor truths, which, if this branch
of political economy is ever to be a safe and
useful guide, must be securely placed on the firm
basis of experience. The principles which contain
many of these will, it is hoped, be found so es-
tablished here: but I should shew that I ill
understood the extent and difficulty of the sub-
ject, and the mode of mastering it which I have
myself so strenuously recommended, did I not state
my conviction that to compleat the knowledge really
and securely attainable, on the subjects treated in
the following pages, will still require the patient
and assiduous observations and labor of many minds,
and probably of more than one generation. During
this process, the too hasty erection of whole systems,
a frail thirst for the premature exhibition of com-
manding generalities, will probably continue to be
the sources of error most to be guarded against.
xl PREFACE.
It is, assuredly not by indulging and encouraging
such errors that the boundary of human knowledge
in this direction will be successfully or safely ap-
proached. The portions of truth which can in the
first instance be safely attained, must necessarily
be narrow principles, grounded upon a limited field
of experience, cautiously and patiently worked out.
Wider generalities of more scientific simplicity, can
only be approached after these intermediate truths
have been mastered. This is the appointed course
of true and permanent science. To spring at once
from partial and broken observations to the most
general axioms; to dart from a state of ignorance
and confusion upon the fundamental and ultimate
elements of systematic knowledge, without touching
the ground during the intermediate flight: this is
the course of a rash theorist, and not of a phi-
losopher; and those who have often tracked that
course, must know but too well, that the very
simplicity and commanding aspect of propositions
so attained, is much oftener a warning of the in-
security of their application, than any evidence of
their truth.
It will not be thought, I hope, that these
many warnings come of faintheartedness. Did
I not distinctly see in the far distance a goal
worthy of the toil, I should not have applied my
shoulder to the humble task of advancing the car
PREFACE.
xU
of knowledge one span's length in its career.
I firmly believe that the day will come when the
most intricate practical problems connected with
the whole subject of the " Distribution of Wealth**
will be readily solved by the application of princi-
ples firmly established and thoroughly understood;
nor do I think that this confidence is tinged with
rashness. If, in the road to truth through obser-
vation and induction, men can advance only by slow
and laborious steps, it is at least the privilege of
those who tread it, to see through its long vista,
a cheering spectacle of final triumphs. While
viewing the destined progress of a career so full
of majesty and promise, they may forget without
presumption, both their own individual feebleness,
and that of their fellow men ; and look forward
to conquests to be won by the united efforts of
the race, and by the growing discoveries of succes-
sive generations.
Before I close this Preface, the grateful task
remains to be performed, of returning my thanks
to the University of Cambridge, and to the
Syndics of its Press, for having extended their
assistance to my attempt. These pages were
printed at their press, and at their expence. The
aid thus given is in itself an obligation : but the
feelings with which it is received, are in my case
considerably heightened, by its being in some
xlii PREFACE.
measure a renewal in maturer life, of my connec-
tion with a body which I have never ceased to
regard with the utmost affection and respect;
because I owe to my entrance into it much of
the purest and most vivid happiness of my early
life, and opportunities at least of intellectual cul-
ture, for which I can only feel the more grateful,
as advancing years shew me more clearly, what
benefits they may bestow, on those who have
the good fortune and the industry to use them
worthily.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE.
Origin of enqiiiries into the causes which influence the production of ■wealth—
generation and cultivation of the branch of economical enquiry which re-
lates to the distribution of wealth, p. i. Different success which has re-
warded those who pursued the one or the other branch of enquiry French
Economists — Locke — Smith — Malthus, p. iii — Unfortunate in his suc-
cessors— gloomy complexion of their doctrines — their mistakes — as to rent —
as to population — as to the effects of a declining rate of profits — miserable
practical consequences of their errors, p. vi. Contradiction of their conclu-
sions presented by obvious facts — effect of this contradiction on the public
mind — unpopularity of what is called Political Economy — injustice of vague
distrust in the subject — Truth to be obtained by observation and induction
— abundance of materials now open to enquirers — Causes of former failure —
neglect of warnings of the author of inductive philosophy — necessity of
future labor — and grounds of hope, p. xiv.
Object and plan of the following Work — abiding assurance of the Author that
the experience of the past and present can alone afford grounds for reasoning
as to the future, p. xxiv.
Rents selected to begin with — why — division of rents into Classes — Wages.—
funds which support laborers divided into classes — principles of population
Capital — rate of profits — mass of profits — functions of capital — Taxation-
history — departments — limits.
Views taken of these subjects felt to be incomplete — yet has yielded much cheer-
ing truth ^harmony between interests of proprietors and those of other
classes — Declining rate of profit no indication of weakness or decay,
p. XXV. Population — different modes of incidence of moral and physical
evil — consolation which the distinction affords both to individuals and
states — wholesome causes of the retardation of population — their action in-
dependent of vice — favorable on the whole to virtue — Illusive nature of the
gloom which has overspread the whole subject, p. xxxiii.
Practical principles remain to be established on the basis of experience — some
so established here — much remains to be done — what kind of errors are
most likely to impede the future progress of the subject — aim and course of
false philosophy — different and more difficult, but more promising, and in
the result more splendid, course of the true — The Author's thanks to the
University of Cambridge and ihe Syndics of its Press, p. xxxix.
xliv CONTENTS.
BOOK I. Rent.
CHAPTER I.
DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.
Ihtroduction. Limitation of the Sense in which the word Wealth is
used. Division of the general subject into Rent, AVages, Profits, and
the Sources of Taxation 1
Section 1. Rents. Origin of Rents — Division into Primary or Peasant's
Rents, and Secondary, or Farmer's Rents — Their comparative extent.... 3
Section 2. Division of Peasant Rents into Labor Metoyer Ryot and
Cottier Rents 16
CHAPTER IL
LABOR OB SERF RENTS.
Section 1. Their Origin — Prevalence from Russia to the Rhine 17
Section 2. Labor or Serf Rents in Russia — Their results— Bondage of
the Peasants — How compleated — Crown Peasants — Causes of their
partial emancipation, and change in the form of their Rents — Their ad.
vantages — Disadvantages — Temper — Prospects 20
Section 3. Labor Rents in Hungary — Former Condition of Peasants
Actual Condition — Maria Theresa — Urbarium — Good effects— Imper-
fections — Causes of these 28
Section 4. Labor Rents in Poland — Their State in different divisions of
Poland In the kingdom of Poland — Stanislaus Augustus — Consti-
tution adopted under him — Rights granted by it to Peasants — Effects of
these 33
Section 6. Labor Rents in Livonia and Esthonia — Peculiarity of these—
Experiment of which they represent the progress — Literary disquisitions
on the best mode of emancipating the Peasantry encouraged by the
Empress Catherine — results — Description of the conditions granted to
the Livonian Peasantry 36
Section 6. Labor Rents in Germany — They are going through a process
of slow demolition — exemplified by the parallel case of their gradual dis-
appearance from England — Amtmen — Bauers — Hanoverian Leibeigeners
and Meyers— actual condition of the Bauers — their general emancipation
from personal bondage 40
Section 7- On some vestiges of Labor or Serf Rents westward of the
Rhine — in the Scottish Highlands 44
CONTENTS. Xlv
Page
Sectiok 8. Summary of the eflFects of Serf Rents — Dependence of Wages
on Rents — Insufficiency of agricultural labor — Reluctance and want of
skill of Peasants in Russia — Prussia — Austria — Tendency to corrupt
habits of free laborers living in the midst of them — anecdote of Meck-
lenburg leibeigeners and Prussian free laborers — Effect of insufficiency
of their labor on national wealth and strength — Inefficient superin-
tendence of agricultural labor — Russian, Prussian, Hungarian and
German nobles — causes of their deficiencies as conductors of cultivation
— Small numbers of the independent classes — Authority of landlords
over tenants — judicial when not despotic — domainial tribunals — in
Hungary — in Germany — effects of these — The power and influence of
the Aristocracy — Good effects of these — Exceptions — Want of po-
pular influence in the political constitution of such countries — Cir-
cumstances which determine the amount of labor rents — different
modes of increasing those rents — different effects of those modes — On
the changes in labor rents which are desirable — difficulties which oppose
those changes — Slow processes most sure and safe — Prussian attempts
at a rapid change — unsatisfactory results and prospects 47
CHAPTER III.
METAYER RENTS.
Section 1. Metayer Rents — description of — where prevalent — origin .... ^3
Section 2. Metayers in Greece — older class of tenantry — cultivation
by rural proprietors— Transition to Mortita or Metayers 7^
Section 3. Metayers among the Romans — small proprietors — progress
of cultivation — causes of spread of tenantry — ultimate prevalence of
coloni medietarii, or Metayers — revival and spread of Metayer rents
among the barbarian occupiers of the empire 83
Section 4. Metayer Rents in France — first effects of the barbarian occupa-
tion of Gaul — introduction of Feudal tenures and of labor rents — Serfs
or Mainmortables under Lewis the XVIth — Metayers — causes of their
progress and final prevalence — Terms on which they held — causes of
misery — TaiUe — Description of their condition, and comments by
Turgot — Their actual numbers and condition in France 87
Section 5. Metayer Rents in Italy — size of farms — condition of tenantry
— similar rents prevail in the Valteline — Vaudois — Spain Canary
islands — and exist in Afghaunisthaun 97
Section 6. Summary of Metayer Rents — advantages of the Metayer — dis-
advantages— Metayer rents may increase in two modes — effects of each
mode of increase — probable effects on European nations of the progress
of changes in the Metayer system 101
xlvi CONTENTS,
CHAPTER IV.
Vage
RYOT RENTS.
Section 1. Ryot Rents— description — origin — disastrous effects on the
political institutions of countries in which they prevail 109
Section 2. Ryot Rents in India — uncertainty of the rent — tyrannical
collection — effects on the cultivation of the country 113
Section 3. Ryot Rents in Persia — Character of the Persian Government
— peculiarity of the soil — necessity of irrigation — mode of effecting it —
consequent necessity of fixed property in improvements — State of Ryots
—of Lords of Villages — abuses of Government 119
Section 4. Ryot Rents in Turkey — Origin — amount — ziameta — timars
— mortitae — advantages of the Turkish system — disadvantages 127
Section 5. Ryot Rents in China little understood — Their progress
different there and in the rest of Asia — Quiet and skilful government
of China — Increase of population — Revenue — Other Asiatic countries
in which it may be presumed ryot rents prevail 132
Section 6. Mixture of other rents with Ryot — Labor rents — Metayer
rents — in Persia, India, Turkey 136
Section ?• Summary of Ryot Rents, their direct effects not necessarily
bad — their indirect and political effects disastrous — Connection of ryot
rents with wages — Modes of increase — different results of each 138
CHAPTER V.
cottier rents.
Cottier Rents — descriptioE — dependent on the possibility of paying money
rent — only to be observed on a considerable scale in Ireland Disad-
vantages when compared with other classes of peasant rents — Want of
external restraints on a too rapid increase of numbers — Want of assist-
ance of custom and prescription in keeping rents moderate — Want of
a common interest between landlord and tenant as direct and obvious
as in other classes of peasant rents — Advantages — Facilities of tenants
to change their character, and assume the rank of farmers — Connection
of cottier rents with wages — Modes in which cottier rents may increase
— different results of each 143
CHAPTER VI.
PEASANT RENTS IN GENERAL.
Summary of Peasant Rents — Invariable connexion between peasant rents and
wages— Influence on agricultural production — On the numbers of the
CONTEXTS. xlvii
non-agricultural classes — On the identity (common to all classes of
peasant rents) of the interests of the landlords with those of their
tenantry and the community — On the causes of the long duration of
the systems of primary or peasant rents— Division of such rents accord-
ing to their different tendencies to change, into four portions — Diffi-
culty in producing motion in the last and largest portion — Cause of
this actual penury of the cultivators, and reluctance or inability of
landlords to make a direct sacrifice of income — Observations on cer-
tain notions as to rent which are inconsistent with those brought to
light by the review of peasant rents 156
CHAPTER VII.
FARMERS RENTS.
Section 1. Introduction 185
Origin of Farmers Rents 186
Severance of the connexion between Rent and Wages 188
Section 2. Three Different modes in which farmer's rents may increase.
On the progress and effects of a rise of rents from an increase of produce
caused by the use of more capital in cultivation 189
Statement of the ordinary course of such rise — Examination of the law of
Messrs. Ricardo and Mill, that every portion of additional produce must
be obtained by the expenditure of a greater proportion of capital —
Examination of the position of Mr. Ricardo that " if capital could be
indefinitely employed without a diminished return on the old land,
there could be no rise of rent" — Examination of the opinion that in-
creased produce so obtained must lower rents — Proof that increased
produce from the outlay of increased capital ordinarily raises rent,
when it is obtained without a diminished return 190
Different effect of capital employed in different shapes 217
Distinction between auxiliary capital and capital used in maintaining laborers
Different progress of human power indicated by the accumulation of
capital in one or in the other shape — Difference between the annual
return necessary to make the employment of equal quantities of each
kind of capital profitable.— Effects produced by the employment of
increasing quantities of auxiliary capital on rents and on the relative
incomes of capitalists and landlords 217
Effects of the accumulation of auxiliary capital in agriculture on the relative
numbers and influence of the different classes of the community 227
The employment of auxiliary capital augments the relative numbers of the
non-agricultural classes 228
Xlviii CONTENTS.
Pige
The increate of auxiliary capital increases the revenue of the intermediate
classes 231
Section 3. On the second source of the increase of farmers rents, or on
THE ivcRfiASivo TmciESCY of the capital employed 236
The effects of this source of increase are less in amount than the effects of
the employment of additional capital on the same. But those effects
are accompanied hy a power of cultivating poorer soils and a consequent
spread of tillage, and also by a power gradually to accumulate more
capital on the old soils, and a second rise of rents from this source 238
Section 4. On the third source of the increase of farmers rents, namely,
a decrease in the share of t/ie producing classes, the produce
remaining the same.
The increase of p:^uce rents from this cause is measured by the decreasing
fertility of the soils governing price 244
The decreasing fertility of the soil may (as it affects wages and profits) be
balanced by the increased efficiency of manufacturing labor.
Should the efficiency of agriculture begin to decrease, a community of which
the manufacturing industry is improving, may, in spite of the decrease,
produce both more com and more of every other commoddity than it
did before the decrease began 248
Section 5. On the fallaciousness of some supposed indications of the
decreasing efficiency of agricultural labor 255
A fall of profits is no proof of tlte decreasing efficiency of agricultural
industry 257
An increasing relative value of raw produce is no proof of the decreasing effi-
ciency of agricultural industry 264
An increasing money value of raw produce compared with the prices of other
countries is no proof of the decreasing efficiency of agricultural industry 266
Section 6. On some indications of the real sources of increasing rents
which are to be obtained in particular instances, by observing. First,
the variations which take place in tfie comparative numrers of
the agricultural and non-agricultural classes, and Secondly, the
alterations which shew themselves in the landlord's proportion of the
produce 277
Proof, from these indications, that in the case of England, the rise which
has taken place in rents has originated in better farming, and not in the
cause assumed by Mr. Ricardo and others, namely, " the employment
of an additional quantity of labor with a proportional less return" 282
Section 7- The interests of the landlords are not in opposition to those of
the other classes.
The landlords may have a temporary and limited interest in the depression
of other classes. This circumstance is not peculiar to them. The
CONTENTS. \lix
Page
revenue of every class may be increased by an invasion of ihc revenue
of others — but the revenue of notw can thus increase securely and pro-
gressively in the progress of nations. Proof as to wages — Proof as to
profits — Proof as to rents 286
Section 8. Smnmary of Farmcr\s Rents 305
Position of the Land-owners in the advance of Society to Fanner's Rents 306
Observations on some circjtmstances in the Actual Position of England 308
Strict connexion between the interests of the Non -agriculturists and the
Agriculturists — Corn Laws — Tithes — Poor Laws— desirable alterations il:
Conclusion: Peasants Rents are properly considered as Rents 324
Interests of the Proprietors always identical with those of the Cultivators.... 320
Permanent and progressive prosperity of each class of the community de-
pendent on the common .idvance of all 329
.Appendix. Proofs and Illustrations (1)
r/
It has been mentioned to me, that I have given no
regular definition of the word Rent. The omission was
not undesigned. On a subject like this, to attempt to
draw conclusions from definitions, is almost a sure step
towards error. A dissertation, however, on the use and
abuse of definitions, would be out of its place here.
I have pointed out the origin of payments made to the
owners of the soil. I have tracked their progress. If
any reader, during this enquiry, is really puzzled to
know what we are observing together, I shall be sorry :
but I am quite sure that I should do him no real ser-
vice, by presenting him in the outset with a definition
to reason from.
BOOK I. CHAP. I.
Division of Subject.
The word Wealth presents itself to diflferent Book i.
minds with such variety of meaning, that it will he ^ ^^' '"
best to begin by fixing on some conventional limit to Division of
the sense in which the term shall be used. The ^"^J"*-
definition of Mr. Malthus is, of the many which
have been proposed, perhaps the least objectionable
and the most convenient. Wealth, according to
him, consists of those material objects which are
necessary, useful, or agreeable to mankind.^ In this
restricted sense the word will be used here. Instances
of occasional deviation from it, if any occur, shall be
marked. It will be understood, however, that this
definition is proposed as useful in limiting our sub-
ject, not as furnishing the basis of any conclusions
relating to it. If a more comprehensive interpre-
tation of the term Wealth should be preferred, the
* Prin. of Pol. Econ. p. 28. I think this definition as it
stands, is on the whole rather preferable to the slightly altered
version of it, which Mr. Malthus has since adopted in his Work
on Definitions, p. 234. Neither of them perhaps, are perfectly
proof against a pains-taking objector. Either, would very well
answer our present purpose, of restricting the subject on which
we are about to enter to some definite limits.
A
2 Distribution of Wealth.
Book I. results of the facts or reasonings we shall have to
*^*P'" adduce, will be in no degree affected by the
Division of change.
subject. ^11 wealth, whatever be its source, is made
available for the purposes of man by human labor:
by that even the spontaneous productions of the
earth must be gathered and appropriated. Hence
the hands from which all wealth is first distributed
must be those of the laborer. But the laborer is
rarely in a condition to retain the whole produce of
his exertions. In whatever state of society he exists,
some tie, or some want, makes him to a certain extent
dependent upon others. Those who constitute the
larget proportion of the laboring class throughout
the world find no fund accumulated by others, from
which they may draw their daily subsistence : they
are obliged therefore to raise it with their own hands
from the soil. If that soil belongs to others, this
circumstance alone makes the peasants at once tri-
butary to the proprietors, and a portion of the produce
is distributed as Rent. If besides the soil other things
are needful to facilitate their exertions, to the owner
of these things another part of the produce must be
resigned, and hence the origin of Profits. The share
of the laborer, the reward of mere personal exertion,
in whatever shape, or manner, or time, it may be
received, constitutes the Wages of labor. Into these
three portions, Rent, Profits, and Wages, the annual
produce of the land and labor of every country is
in the first instance divided: all other revenues are
derived from these. The whole subject of the dis-
tribution of wealth then naturally separates itself
subject.
Distribution of Wealth. 3
into three divisions, which may conveniently be made book i.
the subject of three books, devoted to the examination ^^'''
of those circumstances which in different stages of Division of
society determine the amount, first of Rent, then
of Wages, thirdly of Profits. In a fourth book,
if our plan should be completed, we shall attempt
to trace the revenue which the state at successive
periods usually derives from each of these.
The present volume will contain the book on
Rent.
SECTION I.
On the Origin of Rents : on their Division into Primary
and Secondary, or Peasant and Farmer'^s Rents.
When mankind have become sufficiently nume- Book i.
vous to be driven from the pastoral state to agri- ?^*^'/'
culture for subsistence, and before sufficient funds
have accumulated in the possession of others to supply 2''?'"*°'l
the body of the people with their daily bread, they R«n's.
must extract it with their own hands from the soil,
or they must starve. While thus circumstanced
they may, or may not, be themselves the owners of
the implements, seed, &c. by the assistance of which
their manual labor applied to the soil produces them
a continuous maintenance ; a stock which if used for
any other purpose must soon be exhausted: such a
stock, if they possess it, is in their peculiar circum-
a2
4 Rent.
Book I. stances entirely deprived of its mobility; it is con-
^^'l' vertible to no other purpose, and is confined to the
task of assisting cultivation, by the same necessity
S"?^ '^^ which compels its owners to extract their food from
jJivision 01 JT
^°t»- the earth : and the returns to stock so situated, like
the returns to the labors of its owners (or their wages),
must be governed by the terms on which land can be
obtained. Should the surface of the country which
such a people inhabit be appropriated, the only chance
which the cultivator has of being allowed to occupy
that portion of it, from which he is to draw his sub-
sistence, rests upon his being able to pay some tribute
to the owner. The power of the earth to yield,
even to the rudest labors of mankind, more than
is necessary for the subsistence of the cultivator
himself, enables him to pay such a tribute: hence
the origin of rent. A very large proportion of
the inhabitants of the whole earth are precisely
in the circumstances we have been describing;
sufficiently numerous to have resorted to agricul-
ture; too rude to possess any accumulated fund
in the shape of capital, from which the wages of
the laboring cultivators can be advanced. These
cultivators in such a state of society comprise always,
from causes we shall hereafter arrive in sight of,
an overwhelming majority of the nation. As the
land is then the direct source of the subsistence
of the population, so the nature of the property
established in the land, and the forms and terms
of tenancy to which that property gives birth,
furnish to the people the most influential elements
of their national character. We may be prepared
Rent. 5
therefore to see without surprise, the different sys- Book i.
tems of rents which in this state of things have arisen ^^l'!'
out of the peculiar circumstances of different people,
forming the main ties which hold society together, 2ildsU)n"of
determining the nature of the connection between i^"*s-
the governing part of the community and the go-
verned, and stamping on a very large portion of
the population of the whole globe their most striking
features, social, political, and moral.
If indeed it were true, as some have fancied,
that lands were always first appropriated by those
who are willing to bestow pains on their cultiva-
tion ; if in the history of mankind it were an
ordinary fact, that the uncultivated lands of a
country were open to the industry or necessities of
all its population; then some time would elapse in
the progress of agricultural nations before rents
made their appearance at all; and when they did
appear, still, while any portion of the country re-
mained unoccupied, the rents paid on the lands
already cultivated would only be in exact proportion
to their superiority, from position or goodness, over
the vacant spots-
Such a state of things might occur; it is an
abstract possibility: but the past history and pre-
sent state of the world yield abundant testimony,
that it neither is, nor ever has been, a practical
truth, and that the assumption of it as the basis
of systems of political philosophy, is a mere fal-
lacy.
When men begin to unite in the form of an
agricultural community, the political notion they
C Rent.
Book I. seem constantly to adopt first, is that of an exclu-
secT/ ^^^^ I'ight, existing somewhere, to the soil of the
country they inhabit. Their circumstances, their
2[jfJSI,^o^f prejudices, their ideas of justice or of expediency,
Rents. lead them, almost universally, to vest that right
in their general government, and in persons deriv-
ing their rights from it.
The rudest people among whom this can at pre-
sent be observed are perhaps some of the Islanders
of the South Seas. The soil of the Society Islands
is very imperfectly occupied; the whole belongs to
the sovereign; he portions it among the nobles,
and makes and resumes grants at his pleasure.
The body of the people, who live on certain edible
roots peculiar to the country, which they cultivate
with considerable care, receive from the nobles, in
their turn, permission to occupy smaller portions.
They are thus dependent on the chiefs for the
means of existence, and they pay a tribute, a rent,
in the shape of labor and services performed on
other lands'.
On the continent of America, the institutions
of those people, who before its discovery had resorted
to agriculture for subsistence, indicate also an early
and complete appropriation of the soil by the state.
In Mexico there were crown lands cultivated by
the services of those classes who were too poor to
contribute to the revenue of the state in any other
manner. There existed too a body of about 3000
nobles, possessed of distinct hereditary property in
' Appendix.
Rent. 7
land. " The tenure by which the great body of the ^^ }'
" people held their property was very different. In Sect, i,
"every district a certain quantity of land was mea- Q"~r ,
" sured out in proportion to the number of families. Division cf
Rents
" This was cultivated by the joint labor of the whole:
" its produce was deposited in a common storehouse,
" and divided among them according to their respec-
"tive exigencies^" While in Peru "all the lands
" capable of cultivation were divided into three
"shares. One was consecrated to the Sun, and
"the produce of it was applied to the erection of
" temples, and furnishing what was requisite towards
" celebrating the public rites of religion. The second
" belonged to the Inca, and was set apart as the pro-
" vision made by the community for the support of
"government. The third and largest share was
"reserved for the maintenance of the people among
" whom it was parcelled out. Neither individuals,
" however, nor communities had a right of exclusive
"property in the portion set apart for their use.
"They possessed it only for a year, at the expira-
" tion of which, a new division was made in propor-
" tion to the rank, the number, and the exigencies
"of each family^."
Throughout Asia, the sovereigns have ever
been in the possession of an exclusive title to the
soil of their dominions, and they have preserved
that title in a state of singular and inauspicious
integrity, undivided, as well as unimpaired. The
people are there universally the tenants of the
' Robertson's America^ Book vii. ^ Ibid.
8 Rent,
Book I. sovereign, who is the sole proprietor ; usurpations of
Sect. 1. his officers alone occasionally break the links of the
chain of dependence for a time. It is this uni-
SSSorof versal dependence on the throne for the means of
^°''* supporting life, which is the real foundation of
the unbroken despotism of the Eastern world, as
it is, of the revenue of the sovereigns, and of the
form which society assumes beneath their feet.
In modern Europe the same rights once pre-
vailed, but here they were soon moderated, and
finally disappeared. The subordinate chiefs, who
followed in crowds the leaders of the barbarian
irruptions, were little accustomed to tolerate con-
stant dependence and regular government, and utterly
unfit to become its support and agents. Yet even
by them, the abstract right of the sovereign to the
soil was very generally recognized. Traces of it are
still preserved in the language of our laws ; the high-
est title a subject can claim is that of tenant of
the fee, and the terms of this tenancy made ori-
ginally the only difference in the extent of interests
in estates.
The steps by which beneficiaries became the real
proprietors are familiar .to almost all classes of readers ;
it is enough for our present purpose to see that in
Europe, as in Asia and South America, the soil
was practically appropriated by the sovereign or
a limited number of individuals, at a time when
the bulk of the people were wholly dependent on
the occupation of portions of it for their subsistence,
and when they became therefore, inevitably, tributary
to its owners.
Rent. 9
The United States of North America, though b^o^^ i-
often referred to in support of different views, afford sect. i.
another remarkable instance of the power vested in — —
the hands of the owners of the soil, when its occu- Diviaion"of
pation offers the only means of subsistence to the ^°"'
people. The territories of the Union still unoc-
cupied, from the Canadian border to the shores of
the Floridas, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
are admitted, in law and practice, to be the pro-
perty of the general government. They can be
occupied only with its consent, in spots fixed on
and allotted by its servants, and on the condition
of a previous money payment. That government
does not, it is true, convert the Successive shoals
of fresh applicants into tenants, because its policy
rejects such a measure. Its legislators inherited
from the other hemisphere at the outset of their
career the advantages of an experience accumulated
during centuries of progressive civilization : they saw,
that the power and resources of their young govern-
ment were likely to be increased more effectually
by the rapid formation of a race of proprietors, than
by the creation of a class of state tenantry. It has
been suggested, that they may have acted unwisely
in overlooking such a mode of creating a permanent
public revenue. Had they perversely- entertained
the will to do so, unquestionably they had the power.
Their rapidly increasing numbers could have been
sustained only by the spread of cultivation. As fresh
settlements became necessary to the maintenance of
the people, the government might have made its
own terms when granting the space from which
10 Rent.
Book I. alone the population could obtain subsistence ; and
SecTi! ^^^s without parting with the property of the soil.
Had this been done, the career of the nation, essen-
DSon"of tially different from what it has been, would more
Rents, closely have resembled that of the people of the
old world.
In the English colonies of Australia, an unsettled
territory, which will bear comparison with the wastes
of North America in extent, is the acknowledged
property of the crown. A system of disposing of
the public lands has lately been adopted, which is
a mean between an absolute sale and the creation
of a permanent tenantry \ The person receiving
a grant is subject to a moderate rent, which he may
commute for the payment of a specific sum".
Throughout central Africa the consent of the
king or chief must be obtained, before any spot of
ground can be cultivated^. AVe know but little
of the subsequent rights of the cultivator or of his
connection with the sovereign ; but the necessity
of applying for permission implies a power to with-
hold it, or to grant it conditionally.
The past history and present state therefore of
the old and new world, yield abundant proof of
the visionary nature of those notions as to the origin
of rent, which rest upon an assumption, that it is
' Emigration Report, p. 397- Appendix II.
2 In proposing present terms to persons inclined to settle at
the Swan River, the Colonial Office formally declares an inten-
tion of granting lands after 1830, on snch conditions only, as
may then seem adviscable to Government.
^ Park's Travels in Africa, p. 2()0.
Rent. 11
never the immediate result of cultivation ; and that Book i.
while any land remains unoccupied, no rent will be ^^'\[
paid for the cultivated part, except such as is warranted
by its superiority over that part which is supposed to o^JSLn^of
be always open to the industry of the community. ^"'^•
We come back then to the proposition, that,
in the actual progress of human society, rent has
usually originated in the appropriation of the soil,
at a time when the bulk of the people must cul-
tivate it on such terms as they can obtain, or starve;
and when their scanty capital of implements, seed, &c.
being utterly insufficient to secure their maintenance
in any other occupation than that of agriculture,
is chained with themselves ta the land by an over-
powering necessity. The necessity then, which com-
pels them to pay a rent, it need hardly be observed,
is wholly independent of any difference in the quality
of the ground they occupy, and would not be removed
were the soils all equalized.
The rents thus paid by the laborer, who extracts
his own wages from the earth, may be called peasant
rents, using the term peasant to indicate an occupier
of the ground who depends on his own labor for its
cultivation ; or they may be called primary rents,
because, in the order of their appearance in the
progress of nations towards civilization, they inva-
riably precede that other class of rents to which
we have now to advert.
On the Origin of Secondary or Farmer's Rents.
Much time seldom elapses, after the formation
of an agricultural community, before some imperfect
12 Rent.
Book I. separation takes place between the departments of
^I'^'l' labor. The body of artizans and mechanics bear
at first a very small proportion to the whole num-
Origin and j^^^.g ^f ^^i^ peoplc '. somc of thcsc soon become able
Division of i •»•
Rents. to storc up such a quantity of food, implements, and
materials, as enable them to feed and employ others,
to take the results of their labour, and to exchange
them again for more food, and all that is necessary
to continue the process. A class of capitalists is
thus formed, distinct from that of laborers and land-
lords. This class sometimes (but, taking the earth
throughout, very rarely) makes its appearance on
the land, and takes charge of its cultivation. The
agricultural laborer no longer depends for subsist-
ence upon the crops he raises from the soil ; and
the landlord, instead of receiving his share directly
from the hands of the laborer, receives it indirectly
through those of the new employer.
Since these rents invariably succeed in the order
of civilization the class already pointed out, they
may be called secondary rents ; or, because the
capitalist, who becomes responsible for the rent of
land which he cultivates by the labor of others,
is usually called a farmer, these rents may conve-
niently be called farmer's rents, and so distinguished
from peasant rents.
There are cases, no doubt, in which it is diffi-
cult to determine to which of these two classes, the
peasant or farmer's rents, the rents paid by particular
individuals belong. But this is a circumstance which
need embarrass the enquiries of none but those who
delight in surrounding a subject with refinements
Rent. 13
and difficulties of their own creation. We shall Book i.
find the two classes over vast regions of the globe sea. i!
distinctly and broadly separated in their form, their
effects, and the causes of their variations: and it Dmslon'cff
would be very useless trifling, to linger and puzzle ^'^"'^*
over those very limited spots alone, where they are
in a state of mixture and confusion.
The circumstances which determine the amount
of peasant rents are much less complex than those
which determine the amount of farmer's rents. In
the case of these last, the amount of wages is first
determined by causes foreign to the contract between
the proprietor and the tenant, and then the amount
of rent is strictly limited by the amount of the
profits on the capital used ; which capital, if those
profits are not realized, may be withdrawn to another
employment. The causes which determine the or-
dinary rate of those profits are also independent
of the contract between the landlord and tenant,
and form a distinct subject of enquiry. In the
case of the first class, or peasant rents, the
amount both of wages and rents is determined
solely by the bargain made between the proprietors
and a set of laborers, whose necessities chain them
to the soil with the small capital they use to aid
their labour and procure food ; and the causes which
govern the terms of that bargain are comparatively
simple.
The class of secondary or farmer's rents is that
with which we are the most familiar in England, or
rather that with which we are alone familiar ; and this
familiarity has caused peasant rents in their numerous
14 Rent.
Book I. varieties not only to be neglected in our investi-
Secf/ gations, but, in truth, to be overlooked altogether.
And yet, as has been before suggested, compared
Dmsronof ^^^^ thcsc, the mass of farmer's rents to be found
Rents. on the globe is very small. In England and in most
parts of the Netherlands secondary rents exclusively
prevail. In the Highlands of Scotland, they are only
at this moment displacing the last remains of the
more primitive form : in France, before the revo-
lution, they were found on about one-seventh part
of ^he land : in the other countries of Europe,
they are muqh more rare, throughout Asia hardly
known. We shall be making on the whole an
extravagant allowance, if we suppose them to occupy
one-hundredth part of the cultivated surface of the
habitable globe.
If we consider principally the numbers of the
human race whose fate they influence, or the
extent of the regions of which the social condition
receives its impress from them, then peasant rents
under their various forms will be the most interest-
ing and important. If our taste leads us to under-
take the discussion of these subjects as a scientific
problem, the main interest of which consists in the
exercise it affords to the powers of analysis and
combination, perhaps the second class (or farmer's
rents) may not be undeserving of the exclusive
attention it has received.
15
SECTION 11.
On Peasant Rents : oji their Separation into Labor,
Metayer, Ryot, and Cottier Rents.
While the laborer is confined to the culture ^^ok i.
of the soil on his own account, because it is in that sect. 2.
manner alone that he can obtain access to the wages
on which he is to subsist, the form and amount of Rems"divi.
the Rents he pays are determined by a direct contract
between himself and the proprietor. The provisions
of these contracts are influenced sometimes by the
laws, and almost always by the long established
usages, of the countries in which they are made.
The main object in all is, to secure a revenue to the
proprietors with the least practicable amount of
trouble or risk on their part.
Though governed in common by some important
principles, the variety in the minuter details of this
class of Rents is of course almost infinite. But
men will be driven in similar situations to very
similar expedients, and the general mass of peasant
rents may be separated into four great divisions,
comprising 1st, Labor Rents, Sidly, Metayer Rents,
3dly, Ryot Rents (borrowing the last term from the
country in which we are most familiar with them,
India).
These three will be found occupying in con-
tiguous masses the breadth of the old world, from
the Canary Islands to the shores of China and the
Pacific, and deciding, each in its own sphere, not
merely the economical relations of the landlords and
sion.
16 Rent.
Book 1. teiiaiits, but the political and social condition of the
Chap. i. lYiass- of the people.
Sect. 2.
' To these must be added a fourth division, that
Peasant of Cottici Rcuts, or Reuts paid by a laborer ex-
sion. ' tracting his own wages from the land, but paying
his rent in money, as in Ireland and part of Scot-
land. This class is small, but peculiarly interest-
ing to Englishmen, from the fact of its prevalence
in the sister island, and from the influence it has
exercised, and seems likely for some time yet to
exercise, over the progress and circumstances of the
Irish people.
CHAP. II. SECT. I.
Labor Rents, or Serf Rents.
The landed proprietors of rude nations usually ^^°^ '•
dislike, and are unfit for, the task of superintending sect, i!
labor, and if they can rely, through the receipt of
produce rents, on a supply of necessaries suited to serf°Rents.
their purposes, they uniformly throw upon the pea-
sant the whole business of cultivation. But their
being able to do this in security supposes in the
tenants themselves, some skill, and habits of volun-
tary and regular labor: they must be trust-worthy
too, to a certain extent. There is, however, a point
in the progress of civilization, below which the body
of the people do not possess these qualifications:
when, though driven to agriculture by their num-
bers, they still possess many of the qualities of the
savage ; and are not yet ripe for the regular pay-
ment of produce or money rents ; because their igno-
rance, their impatience of toil, and their impro-
vidence, would expose the proprietor to considerable
danger of starvation, if he depended on their punc-
tuality for the support of himself, and his household.
However averse to the employment, the proprie-
tors may be, they must in this stage of society, take
B
18 Rent.
Book I. some share in the burthen of conducting cultivation.
Chap. ii. Xhey may contrive, however, to get rid of the task
' of raising food for the laborers, who are the instru-
Labor or meuts of that cultivation. They usually set aside
for their use a portion of the estate, and leave
them to extract their own subsistence from it, at
their own risk. They exact as a rent for the land
thus abandoned, a certain quantity of labor, to be
used upon the remaining portion of the estate,
which is retained in the hands of the proprietor.
Such is the expedient which seems generally to
have suggested itself to the owners of the soil,
while the laborers have been in this state of half
civilization, and while no capitalists yet existed.
In the Society Islands, the chiefs allot to their
tenants about sixty acres of land each. The rent
paid for these consists of work done for a certain
number of days at the call of the chief on his own
demesne farm\ They are perhaps the rudest people
among whom this mode of occupying and culti-
vating the soil can be observed ; and it is instructive
to remark among these Islanders of the Antipodes,
the necessities of their position giving birth to a
system, which was once nearly universal in Europe,
and which still prevails over the larger portion of
it.
Arrangements somewhat similar to these exist
in some of our West Indian Islands, between the
negroes and the owners of the estates to which they
belong.
' Appendix III.
Rent. 19
But the people by whom labor rents were esta- Book i.
Wished on the widest scale, and were communicated ^g^^^f "'
to the vast countries in which they did, or do,
principally prevail, were the nations of Eastern Eu- serf°Rents
rope, the inhabitants of the deserts of Germany,
and the wastes beyond the Vistula. Some of the
tribes, who invaded the lower empire, had begun
to resort partially to agriculture for subsistence
before the period of their irruption, and it is pro-
bable that this system was even then not unknown
to them ; but however this may have been, they
certainly established it most extensively through-
out their conquests in Western Europe ; and when
their own fastnesses, the wastes from which they had
migrated, became more regularly peopled and set-
tled, this was the mode of cultivating the land,
which universally prevailed there. It prevails there
still. In their conquests westward of the RhinC;,
it took for a time strong hold of the habits of
the people to whom they introduced it, has left
deep traces in their laws, and yet lingers in par-
ticular spots ; but from this portion of Europe, the
peculiar circumstances of some nations, and the ad-
vance of civilization in all, have repelled the system,
which has given place to other forms of the relation
between proprietors and tenants. In the countries
eastward of the Rhine it is still found paramount;
not wholly unbroken, and shewing every where symp-
toms of gradual or approaching change, but fashion-
ing still the frame of society, and exercising a pre-
dominant influence over the industry and fortunes
of all ranks of people.
13 2
Labor or
Serf Rent*.
20 Rent.
Book I. Thesc labor rents may, with some little exten-
gg^^j"' sion of the ordinary use of the term serf, be all
called serf rents.
As labor or serf rents have gradually receded
from the West, so it is on the Vestern extremity
of the countries in which they still prevail, that
their decomposition is the most advanced. To
observe them, therefore, in their complete state,
we must go at once to the east of Europe, and
begin with Russia, and may trace them thence,
gradually decaying in form and spirit through Hun-
gary, Livonia, Poland, Prussia, and Germany, to
the Rhine, on the borders of which they melt away
into different systems, and are no longer to be re-
cognized.
SECTION II.
On Labor or Serf Rents in Russia.
Book 1. In Russia the peasants, who are settled on the
^*P- "• soil, receive from the proprietor a quantity of land,
great or small, as his discretion or convenience dic-
^'"". tate, from which they extract their wages. They
Russia. are bound to work on the demesnes of the land-
owner three days in the week. The obligation would
be light, were it not for the results it has led to.
In Russia this mode of occupying the soil has
established the complete personal bondage of the
peasant : he has become, with all his family and
Rent 21
descendants, the slave of the lord. Such too has book i
been the result of similar relations between the sect. 2.
proprietor and his tenants, wherever they have pre-
vailed among semi-barbarous people and feeble ge- RenL'in
neral governments' From the countries westward J*"S"*-
of Russia the same state of Jbondage, once common,
is disappearing by degrees. In Russia, as in its
last strong hold, it still subsists entire.
It is not difficult to trace the steps by which
labor rents prepared so generally the servile con-
dition of the peasants, and covered Europe during
the middle ages with a race of predial bonds-men.
A rude people dependent upon their own labor or
their allotment for their support, were often ex-
posed, from the failure of the crops or the ravages
of war, to utter destitution. The lord was usually
able, out of his store-houses, to affiard them some
relief, which they had no means of repaying but
by additional labor. From this and other causes,
the serf did, and does, perpetually owe to his lord
nearly the whole of his time". Besides this, they
* Sweden and Norway must be excepted. No information,
written or verbal, which I have been able to collect, has made
me feel satisfied that I understand the real history of the changes
in the tenure, or in the mode of occupying the soil, which have
taken place in those countries. I can only suspect that the pro-
gress of Sweden in these respects has resembled, in some mea-
sure, that of the German nations: while that of Norway has
been distinct and very peculiar. Labor rents, however, under
various modificarions have been, and are now, known in both
countries.
2 See Bright's description of what takes place in Hungary
even now, although the Austrian government has interposed
to
22 Rent.
Book I. yj^^Q mainly dependent on him for protection from
Chap. ii. to 11 -n 1 .
Sect. 2. strangers and Irom each other. Jbrom his do-
mestic tribunal, he settled their differences and
Rents in punishcd their faults with an authority which the
"ssia. general government was in no condition to super-
sede, and which became at last sanctioned by usage
and equivalent to law. The patriarchal authority of
the Highland chiefs had no other source. In them
it was at once dignified and moderated by supposed
ties of blood. Elsewhere it received no such mitiga-
tion. Their time and their persons being thus aban-
doned to the will of their superiors, the tenantry
had no means of resisting further encroachments.
One of the most general seems to have been, the
establishment of a right by which the landlord,
providing the serf with subsistence, might withdraw
him altogether from the soil on which he had
placed him, to employ him elsewhere at pleasure.
Then followed an understanding that the flight of
a serf from the estate of his landlord, employer, and
judge, was an offence and an injury. This once sanc-
tioned by law and usage, the chains of the serf were
rivetted, and he became a slave, the property of a
master. In Russia he is so still : but successive
modifications have every where else re-endowed hira
with at least some of the privileges of a freeman.
The descent of the peasants towards actual ser-
vitude did not perhaps, in every case, follow the
to jjiotect, to ;•. certain extent, the right oi the peasantry. —
Bright's Hungary, p. 111. Appendix IV
Rent. 23
precise track here marked out. The nations with Book i.
whom labor rents originated in Europe were familiar ^g^^^^' g*
with domestic slavery before they resorted to agricul-
ture for subsistence, and some of their first tenants i*^?' .
I K€nts m
were doubtless already slaves. But when we observe, i^"ssia-
not a portion of the people, in a state of slavery,
but the whole body of peasantry in a wholly agri-
cultural nation, as in Russia and formerly in
Hungary, it is then impossible not to believe
that such extensive servitude has closed gradually
round their ,race. The Russians themselves con-
tend, that the bondage of their peasantry was not
complete, till so late as the reign of Czar Boris
GodounofF, who mounted the throne in 1603\
In the Georgian provinces of Russia, the owner
receives from the peasants a mixture of produce rents
and labor: they work for him only one day in
the week instead of three, and pay one seventh of
the crops raised on their allotments'^. With this
and perhaps other local exceptions, the body of
Russian serfs who are actual cultivators, pay labor
rents, nominally at the rate of three days labor in
the week, for their allotments, but in fact their
condition has degenerated into a state of complete
' General Boltin was encouraged by Catharine II. to pub-
lish (in Russia) some researches on the origin of slavery in
Russia, and as such was his conclusion, it rests certainly on no
niean authority. Before the time of Boris Godounoff, General
Boltin asserts, that the only real slaves in Russia were prisoners
taken from an enemy, and that the peasants were reduced to
slavery (asservis) after that epoch. Storch, Vol. VI. p. 310.
2 See Gamba, Voy. dans la Russ. Tom. II. p. 84.
Labor
Rents in
24 Rent.
Book I. personal bondage, and the demands of the proprie-
sect 2 ^®^' though influenced by custom, are really limited
only by his own forbearance. The money commu-
tation of these labor rents, when they are permitted
Russia. to make one, which they very generally are, is called
like the payments from the personal slaves, obroc
or abroc, and is completely arbitrary, and settled
by the master according to his suspicions of their
ability\
But even in Russia, the bondage of the serfs,
although more entire than elsewhere, is yet, as re-
spects a large body, perhaps half of the peasantry, in
a state of rapid change. That change has originated
with the government. The existence of very exten-
sive crown domains may perhaps be considered as an
indication of a backward state of civilization. In
other parts of Europe, they will usually be found
^ Heber (late Bishop of Calcutta) quoted by Clarke, Tra-
vels, Vol. I. p. 165. The peasants belonging to the nobles, have
their abrock regulated by their means of getting money ; at an
average throughout the empire of eight or ten roubles. It then
becomes not a rent for land, but a downright tax on their
industry. Each male peasant is obliged by law to labor three
days in each week for his proprietor. This law takes effect
on his arriving at the age of fifteen. If the proprietor chooses
to employ him on the other days he may ; as, for example, in
a manufactory; but he then finds him in food and clothing.
Mutual advantage however generally relaxes this law; and
excepting such as are selected for domestic servants, or, as
above, are employed in manufactories, the slave pays a certain
abrock or rent, to be allowed to work all the week on his
own account. The master is bound to furnish him with a
house and a certain portion of land.
Rent. 25
Small in proportion to the advance of the people Book i.
in wealth and numbers. The domains of the c^f"'
Sect. 2.
Russian sovereign are immense, and perhaps more
than equal the estates of all his subjects. This ^^"J^^
fact is indicated by the number of royal serfs : of Russia.
these, in 1782, ten millions and a half belonged
to the crown. To extract labor rents from such a
body of people, that is to employ them, as they are
employed by subjects in raising produce for the
benefit, and under the superintendence, of their
owner, was a work clearly beyond the administrative
capacity of any government. Induced therefore
partly by the necessity of the case, partly, we may
believe, by a wise policy, the Russian government
has attempted to establish on the crown domains a
different system of cultivation, including an almost
total abolition of labor rents, and a voluntary and
very considerable modification of the sovereign's
power, as owner of the serfs. The villages inha-
bited by the peasants of the crown have been formed
into a sort of corporations ; the surrounding lands are
cultivated by them at a very moderate fixed rent or
abroc : the serfs may securely acquire for themselves
and transmit to others personal property, and what
is a more important privilege, and one not always
conceded to their class in neighbouring countries
of more liberal institutions, (in Hungary for in-
stance), they may purchase or inherit land^. In
^ This privilege was given in 1801, and in 1810 the
peasants of the crown had purchased lands to the value of two
millions of roubles in Bank assignations. During the same
periodj
26 Rent.
Book I. the tribunals instituted especially for the manage-
Chap. ii. j^gjj^ Qf |-]jgij. corporations, two peasants, chosen by
the body, have a seat and voice with the officers
Labor of the emperor\ But the right to "their personal
Russia. services has not been wholly abandoned. The serf is
so far attached to the soil as to be forbidden to leave
his village unless with a special licence, which is
only granted, when granted at all, for a limited term.
The Russian monarchs have manufactures and mines
conducted on their own account. The serfs on the
crown lands are still liable to be taken from their
homes and employed on these. They are hired
out occasionally to the owners of such similar estab-
lishments as it is thought politic to encourage ; and
in some of the foreign provinces loiited to Russia,
though not lately, it should seem, in Russia proper,
they are liable to be sold, or to be given away, or
granted with the soil for a term, to individuals whom
the court wishes to enrich. Could this large portion
of the popidation of the empire be thoroughly eman-
cipated, completely freed from oppression, and ena-
bled to collect and preserve capital, Russia would
soon have a third estate and an efficient body of
cultivators, fitted gradually to bring into action her
great territorial resources. The tenants on the
royal domains already appear to be, on the whole^
in a condition superior to that of the serfs of indi-
period, all the other classes (not being noble) had only pur-
chased to the amount of 3..611..000 roubles in the same paper
money.
* For a more detailed account of these alterations, see
Storch, Vol. VI. Note xix. p. 266.
2 Storch, Vol. l\. p. 2J)9-
Rent. 27
viduals, but the progress of their improvement is Book i.
Chap. ii.
Sect. 2.
retarded by causes not likely soon to lose their *^' ""
influence. However earnestly the Emperors of
Russia may shake oflP the character of owners of ^J^J^jj^
slaves, they will evidently be obliged for some gene- R^^ssia.
rations to retain that of despots, and there is some
danger, that the ordinary defects of their form of
government will mar their really humane efforts
as landed proprietors. The officers of the Russian
government are proverbially ill paid; oppression
and extortion still afflict the peasantry, and the
condition of the serfs of the crown is sometimes
even worse than that of the slaves of the neigh-
bouring nobility ^
In the mean time, the insensibility for which
the body of the Russian peasantry have been re-
nowned, seems to be giving way. Soon after the
accession of the present Emperor, many of the tenants
of the crown refused to pay their abrock or rents, and
the serfs of individuals to perform their accustomed
labor. A proclamation appeared, reproaching them
with entertaining unreasonable expectations of being
released from rents and services altogether, and
threatening them, in a style which it must be con-
fessed is truly oriental, with severe punishment if
they even petitioned the Czar on such subjects again.
But we must not judge the conduct of the Russian
court by the harsh language of a proclamation is-
sued on such an emergency. The spirit in which
the Czars have dealt with their serfs has hitherto
' Storch, Vol. IV. p. 296.
28
Rent.
Book I. been evidently paternal. The form of their govern-
^^J'g"' ment is theoretically bad; but Russia offers at
present no materials for forming any not likely to
be worse, and the gradual improvement in the con-
dition of such a people, however slowly we see it
proceed, is probably, after all, safer in the hands
of the monarch, than it would be in their own,
or in those of their masters the nobles.
Labor
Rents in
Russia.
Book I.
Chap. ii.
Sect. 3.
Ijabor
Rents in
Hungary.
SECTION III.
On Labor Rents in Hungary.
In Hungary, the nobles alone are allowed to
become the proprietors of land, either by inheritance
or purchase. They constitute about one part in
twenty-one of a population of eight millions.^ Of
the other inhabitants, a great majority are peasants ;
for in 1777 there were only 30,921 artizans in
Hungary, and their number is said to be not much
increased." These peasants occupy about half the
cultivated surface of the country,^ and all pay labor
rents.
Till the reign of Maria Theresa, iheir situation
was nearly similar to that of the Russian serf. They
' Bright's Hungary, p. 110. The population of Hungary
amounts by the last returns to nearly ten millions.
^ In the year 1777, the whole number of handicraftsmen,
their servants, and apprentices, in Hungary, amounted to
.30,921 ; and this number does not seem, by more recent partial
calculations, to have been much increased.^ — Brii^ht, p. 205.
3 Ibid. p. 113.
Re7it. 29
were all attached to the estates on which they book i.
were born, and subjected to services and payments secf 3
wholly indefinite. That Princess set the example of
an earnest attempt to elevate their character, and ^ntJin
improve their circumstances; and the example has Hungary.
been followed in the neighbouring countries with
zeal certainly, if not always with judgment or
success. The results of her own efforts were ex-
tremely imperfect, and not always free from mischief:
but it must be remembered, that those efforts were
much cramped by the influence which the Hunga-
rian constitution enabled the proprietors to exercise,
in thwarting or modifying her measures for the
emancipation of their tenantry.
By an edict of hers, which the Hungarians call
the Urbarium, personal slavery and attachment to
the soil were abolished, and the peasants declared
to be *^ homines liberce transmigrationis." On the
other hand, they were declared mere tenants at will,
whom the lord at his pleasure might dismiss from
the estate. But an interest in the soil, though
denied to them as individuals, was attempted to
be secured to them as a body. The lands on each
estate, before allotted to the maintenance of serfs,
were declared to be legally consecrated to that pur-
pose for ever. They were divided into portions of
from 35 to 40 English acres each, called Sessions.^
^ The size of these sessions seems to have differed in different
parts of Hungary, probably in pi'oportion to the fertility of
the soil.
30 Rent.
Book I. Tlic quantity of labor due to the proprietor for each
^s^as! session, was fixed at 104 days per annum/ The
proprietor might divide these sessions, and grant
R^nuin ^"y minute portion of them he pleased to a peasant;
Hungary, j^^^ jjg could Stipulate for labor only in proportion
to the size of the holding : for half a session 52 days,
for a quarter 26 days, and so proportionably for
smaller quantities.
The urbarium of Maria Theresa still continues
the magna charta of the Hungarian serfs. But
the authority of the owners of the soil over the
persons and fortunes of their tenantry has been
very imperfectly abrogated : the necessities of the
peasants oblige them frequently to resort to their
landlords for loans of food; they become laden with
heavy debts to be discharged by labor. A long
list of customary payments of flax, poultry, &c. are
still due, which swell this account : the proprietors
retain the right of employing them at pleasure ;
paying them, in lieu of subsistence, about one-third
of the actual value of their labor :- and lastly, the
^ Besides this he must give 4 fowls, 12 eggs, and a pfund and
a half of butter ; and every thirty peasants must give one calf
yearly. He must also pay a florin for liis house; must cut and
bring home a klafter of wood ; must spin in his family six pfund
of wool or hemp, provided by the landlord : and among four
peasants, the proprietor claims what is called a long journey,
that is, they must transport 20 centners, each 100 French pounds
weight, the distance of two day's journey out and home : and
besides all this, they must pay one-tenth of all their products to
the church, and one-ninth to the lord.
2 Bright, p. 115.
Rent. 31
administration of justice is still in the hands of book i.
the nobles ; ^ and one of the first sights which strike g^^J"* ^'
a foreigner on approaching their mansions, is a sort
Labor
of low frame-work of posts, to which a serf is tied j^^^^^^ j^
when it is thought proper to administer the dis- Hungary.
cipline of the whip, for offences which do not seem
grave enough to demand a formal trial*.
But while the regulations of the urbarium have
secured thus imperfectly the interests and liberty
of the peasant, they are extremely embarrassing to
the proprietors. A part of each estate is irrevoca-
bly devoted to the maintenance of the laborers, and
that not fixed in reference to its extent and wants,
but decided by the number of peasants who hap-
pened to be on it at the time of the edict. On
some estates, as might be expected, the sessions
devoted to the peasantry maintain more laborers
than are now wanted. The labor rents, to that
extent, are worth nothing to the proprietor, and
unless he has an adjacent estate to employ the serfs
upon, he gets nothing but the flax, poultry, and
small produce payments to which they are liable.
Some estates are wholly occupied by useless laborers ;
on others there are too few ; and from the many ties
which still connect the serf and his landlord, an in-
terchange between different proprietors is rare, while
from the unwillingness of the peasants to quit their
hold, such as it is, upon the soil, free labor, is
still more so. All this part of the arrangement
3 Storch, Vol. VI. p. 308. Bright. -
* See Bright.
32 Rent.
Book I. jg evidently clumsy and inexpedient : it is probable
s^a 3. ^^ originated in a compromise between the wish of
the Empress to secure the peasants some interest
Rems in ^^ ^"^^ ^^^^' ^^^ ^^^ dislikc of the nobles to establish
Hungary. ^^ independence of their serfs. The diet only
confirmed the urbarium at first provisionally, till
something better could be devised \ It appears from
Schmalz, that similar attempts on the part of the
sovereign, to secure to the peasants, as a body,
the occupation of any land once cultivated by them,
were common throughout Germany, and originated
in the exemption of the lands cultivated by the
nobles from direct taxation : when land once got
into the hands of the peasant, it was available to
the public revenue : hence many laws existed in
different states, which forbade its resumption by the
proprietor, without securing a definite interest in it
to any individual tenant. Such laws necessarily
created complicated and anomalous interests in the
soil, and in many instances left in no hands any
authority over it, which could be a sufficient basis
for the most obvious improvements'.
' Storch. Vol. VI. p. 308.
2 Schmalz, Econ. Polit. (French translation, Vol. II, p. 109).
Sans doute, ce sont les proprietaires eux-memes, qui ont donne
lieu a la defense qui leur a ete faite de reprendre leurs fermes
des mains de leur paysans, parce qu'ils ont cherche, et qu'ils
sont parvenus, a se faire dt'grever des impots que les paysans
paient a I'etat, et qu'en consequence, I'etat a interet a s'opposer
a ce que les fermes ou metairies ne soient pas reunies au bien
noble du seigneur fancier, et afTranchies par la de la perception
de I'impot.
Rents. 33
Such a system, however, as established by the Book i.
Urbarium, is still nearly universal throughout Hun- g^^^a"
gary, and there is little immediate prospect of a
change.
SECTION IV.
On Labor Rents in Poland.
The Polish serfs, before the partition, seem to Book i.
h^ve been in a condition very similar to that of those g^^' 4 '
of Hungary before the edict of Maria Theresa, dif-
fering little, if at all, from that of the Russian slave^; Rente in
but from the dark fate of Poland, the system of^°^*"'^*
labor rents now presents itself, in different parts
of what once formed that kingdom, under a con-
siderable variety of modifications. In the portions
seized by the partitioning powers, the arrangements
between landlord and tenant have been influenced
by the very different measures adopted by each
in their own dominions ; while in what may now
be called Poland proper, which became a Russian
province at a later date, a system has arisen which
is peculiar to it.
When in 1791 Stanislaus Augustus, and the
States were preparing a hopeless resistance to the
3 Till the reign of Casimir the Greats about the middle of the
14th century, the Polish nobles exercised over their peasants the
uncontrouled power of life and death. Three days' labour was
their usual rent. — Burnett's View of present State of Poland,
p. 102.
c
34 Ui-nfti.
Book I. threatened attack of Russia, a new constitution,
^s^rr ''^^^opted too late, established the complete personal
freedom of the peasantry. This boon has never
?f•'°^ been recalled. But this constitution did no more
Kcnts in
Poland. for them ; it secured them no interest in the land
they occupied : it did not even stipulate, like the
Hungarian regulations, that a definite portion of
the soil should be unalienably devoted to the
maintenance of their class ; but it left them to
arrange their contracts with the landowners as
they could. Finding that their dependence on the
proprietors for subsistence remained undiminished,
the peasants shewed no very grateful sense of the
boon bestowed upon them : they feared that they
should now be deprived of all claim upon the
proprietors for assistance, when calamity or infirmity
overtook them. This loss they thought more than
balanced the value of an increase, to them at first
merely nominal, in their political rights. It is
only since they have discovered that the connection
between them and the owners of the estates on
which they reside is little altered in practice, and
that their old masters very generally continue, from
expediency or humanity, the occasional aid they
formerly lent them, that they have become re-
conciled to their new character of freemen.
But although bestowed upon a people so far sunk
as to be ignorant of its value, the gift of freedom
has already developed its importance among them.
Since the date of the emancipation of the Polish
peasantry, another alteration in the laws has taken
away the exclusive riglit of the no])les to };e pos-
Rents. 35
sessors of the soil, and introduced a new class of ^°'^^ ^•
proprietors. These have been, on the whole, more sJt T
diligent in pushing cultivation than their prede-
cessors on their estates, and their enterprises have Remsin
already created an increased demand for labor. The p°^*"*'-
effects of this have shewn themselves in the only
manner in which, in a country so occupied and so
cultivated, they could shew themselves, in increased
wages, obtained by increased allotments of land
granted on the reserve of less labor, and with every
encouragement to the peasantry to use their free-
dom, and migrate to the estates on which their
labor is most wanted'.
' See Mr. Jacob's First Report, p. 27- The Appendix to this
Report contains some detailed returns from the managers of
Polish estates, and taken with Mr. Bright's book, presents a
perfect picture of the practical working of the system of labor
rents in Poland and in Hungary. For a graphic sketch of
the state of manners and morals it has produced, the reader
may consult Burnett. In Poland, in Austria, and other parts
of Germany, the proprietor's domain, with his implements,
animals, and capital of all sorts, are sometimes let at a low
money rent to a tenant, together with the right of exacting
and using the labor due from the serfs. The superior tenant
is, in Poland, very often a younger branch of the family, occa-
sionally a stranger. This substitution of another person as
cultivator of the domain, leaves, however, the labor rents of
the serfs (our present object) precisely where they were. It
is considered a veiy disastrous mode of disposing of the do-
main: the stock and capital are usually, as might be expected,
ruined at the expiration of the lease ; it is not now prac-
tised extensively ; though it appears from Mr. Jacob's Second
Report, to be now spreading in the North-west of Germany.
It may, however, possibly prove hereafter, one stepping-stone
( • f2 to
ti(y
SECTION V.
On Labor Rents hi Lironin and Esthonia.
1'he state of tlie peasantry in Livonia is re-
Chap. ii. markablc, because it presents the results of a deli-
Sect. 5. i)erate experiment on the best means of gradually
Labor converting a serf tenantry into a race of freemen.
Rentsin 'pj]j ^\^q reiffu of Alexander the condition of
Ivivoniaand "
Esthonia. the Livonian peasantry was similar to that of the
Russian slave. The servile condition of the culti-
vators had attracted some attention under the Em-
press Catharine, and she had encouraged the men
of letters in her dominions to communicate their
ideas on the best means of gradually modifying
it. M. de Boltin, M. de Kaisarof, and JNI. de
Stroinovsl^y, successively wrote upon the subject.
The work of the last written in Polish was trans-
lated into Russian : it entered into a detailed ac-
count of the measures proper to prepare and for-
ward what was treated as a great and useful reform.
Nor were these notions confined to literary men,
or to individuals. In 1805 the whole body of pro-
prietors in Esthonia agreed among themselves on
some preliminary regulations for the peasantry on
their estates, which, it was avowed, were meant to
pave the way to their ultimate emancipation. These
to a (lifTerent system ; and if the dilapidation of the stock
could be eflTectually jTiiarded affainst, it most ))robablv would
do so.
Rents. .'37
regulations received a formal sanction from the Em- ^^°^ }•
peror. The alterations in I^ivonia began a year sect. 5.
earlier^ and seem to have originated in minds equally
alive to the importance of a change, and to the Rents^in
practical reasons for its being effected gradually. EsthSJTia*."**
Their object aj^pears to have been, to elevate the
serf by degrees, and while that elevation was in
progress, to retain considerable control over him,
partly for his own advantage, partly to secure the
interests of the proprietors. The personal liberty
at first conceded to the peasant was much less com-
plete than that of the Hungarian and Pole, for
he was still attached to the glebe, and had no
power of chusing his employment or residence. But
a benefit was bestowed more important in the out-
set than freedom itself, to persons so wholly de-
pendant on the soil for subsistence ; a benefit which
had been withheld from him in Hungary and
Poland : every individual peasant was invested with
a secure interest in the allotment of land which
he cultivated.
The edict of the Emperor finally legalizing these
regulations appeared in 1804. The Livonian serf
was declared the hereditary farmer of the land lie
occupied. The rent was fixed in labor, to be per-
formed on the domain of the proprietor. It was to
leave the peasant master of at least two-thirds of
his time. If this labor rent should at any time be
commuted for a money payment, the amount of
that payment was limited and fixed, and it was
never to be increased. A lease was to be granted
on these terms, irrevocable, and only subject to for-
38 Rents.
Book I. feituiG ill casG the rent should be two years in arrear ;
g^^t^'g' and then only after the decision of a legal tribunal,
which was to direct the lease to be renewed to
R^msin t^^^ 1^^^^ ^^^^^ ®^ ^^^ defaulter. Some rights of cut-
Livoniaand tiiigr both fircwood and timber for building, in the
Eslhonia. ° i -i /•
proprietor's forests, were also reserved to the seri.
He was enabled to acquire property in moveables
or land, and to mm'ry at his own discretion.
With all these privileges, however, he remains
attached to the soil. He can no longer be sold
away from it, but he is sold with it, or rather the
benefits arising from his compulsory occupation of his
allotment are sold v»ith the rest of the estate : he
is subject to a correctional discipline of fifteen lashes.
On the whole, these regulations do credit to the
good feelings and good sense of the framers of them.
The emancipation of the serf is incomplete ; but it
would have been evidently rash to have abandoned
at once all control over the industry of so rude
a race ; on whose exertions the subsistence of the
proprietors themselves, and the whole cultivation of
the country, must for some time depend'. The
successful results to be looked for from such an
experiment could not be expected to appear at
once ; but it is unpleasant to observe the little
effect apparently produced in fifteen years. Von
Halen, who travelled through Livonia in 1819, ob-
serves, "Along the high road through Livqnia, are
* For an instance of the bad results of a benevolent but
ill-judged attempt at a hasty and complete emancipation, see
Burnett, page 106.
Rents. 39
found at short distances filthy public houses, called Book i.
in the country Rhartcharuas, before the doors of „^^'"*
•^ ' Sect. 5.
which are usually seen a multitude of wretched
carts and sledges belonging to the peasants, who j^^^Jin
are so greatly addicted to brandy and strong liquors, Livonia and
that they spend whole hours in those places, with-
out paying the least regard to their horses, which
they leave thus exposed to the inclemency of the
weather, and which, Avith themselves, belong to the
gentlemen or noblemen of the country. Nothing
proves so much the state of barbarism in which
these men are sunk, as the manner in which they
received the decree issued about this time. These
savages, unwilling to depend upon their own exer-
tions for support, made all the resistance in their
power to that decree, the execution of which was at
length entrusted to an armed force^."
The Livonian peasants, therefore, received their
new privileges yet more ungraciously than the Poles,
though accompanied with the gift of property, and
secure means of subsistence if they chose to exert
themselves. Subsequently their discontent appears
to have taken a different turn. They are said to
have constituted a part of the peasantry, against
whom that edict of the Emperor Nicholas was
directed, which accuses the serfs of wishing to throw
off all rents and services at once.
2 Narrative of Don Juan Von Halen, &c. Vol. II. p. 38.
Don Juan was mistaken as to the date of the decree, which
had been issued since 1804 by the Emperor Alexander, for
partly emancipating some of the Livonian serfs.
40
SECTION VI.
Of Labor Rents in Germany.
Book I. We shall understand better the present state
Sect. 6 ^^ labor rents in Germany, if we previously recall
to mind the downward progress of similar systems
Renuin ^^ Other countries, from which they have disappeared
Germany, gradually *, bccause we shall then see distinctly the
successive steps of that slow demolition, the pro-
gress of which Germany now in its different parts
exhibits in many various stages.
We may take England for such a previous
instance. Thirteen hundred years have elapsed
since the final establishment of the Saxons. Eight
hundred of these had passed away and the Normans
had been for two centuries settled here, and a very
large proportion of the body of cultivators was still
precisely in the situation of the Russian serf\
During the next three hundred, the unlimited labor
rents paid by the villeins for the lands allotted to
them were gradually commuted for definite services,
still payable in kind ; and they had a legal right
to the hereditary occupation of their copyholds.
Two hundred years have barely elapsed since the
change to this extent became quite universal, or
since the personal bondage of the villeins ceased
to exist among us. The last claim of villenage
recorded in our courts was in the 15th of James I.
1618. Instances probably existed some time after
' Eden, Vol. I. p. 7- Appendix V.
Rents. 41
this. The ultimate cessation of the right to demand ^'^^ i-
their stipulated services in kind has been since s"ect. c.
brought about, silently and imperceptibly, not by
positive law ; for, when other personal services were R^nts in
abolished at the restoration, those of copyholders ^^""^"y-
were excepted and reserved^.
Throughout Germany similar changes are now
taking place, on the land ; they are perfected perhaps
no where, and in some large districts they exhibit
themselves in very backward stages. A short de-
scription of the condition of one state will make
that of others intelligible ; allowance must of course
be made for an indefinite variety of modifications
in the practice and phraseology of different districts.
The domain lands, those which in Hungary
Poland and many German states are still culti-
vated by the nobles themselves, are generally in
Hanover let for a money rent to persons who
occupy the domain as a farm, and have the benefit
of the services which the peasant tenants are bound
to perform. Some of these larger tenants, under the
name of Amtmen, exercise the important territorial
jurisdiction, still invested in the nobles, and kept
alive and distinct even on the demesnal possessions
of the crown^. The amtmen are not usually prac-
tical farmers themselves, but lawyers or officers of
government, the only classes which seem to possess
capital for such undertakings. They reside some-
times in towns, and employ stewards or bailiffs to
2 See 12th Charles II. c. 24.
^ Hodgskin, Vol. II. p. 5. "The Amtman frequently unites," &c.
42 Rents.
Book I. look aftcr tlicir very large farms'. These stewards
Se*c^ 6 ^^^ ^^^^ ^^'^^ practical fanners in Germany, are
usually well educated (often in the agricultural
R^msin institutions); and are inferior in general and pro-
G«rmany. fessioual kuowlcdgc to uo sct of cultivators in the
world.
It would be well for the strength and prosperity
of Germany, if its soil were universally under such
management. But by far the larger proportion, it
has been loosely said four fifths, is occupied by a
class of men called collectively Bauers. These, under
another namfe, are the serfs, who in Poland, Hun-
gary, and Russia, form the laboring tenantry of
the nobles. When the laws are recollected, (passed
as before remarked for fiscal purposes) which in
many German states forbade the cultivation by
the proprietor of any land which had once been in
the hands of a baucr, the spread of this order and
the proportion of the land occupied by them will
not appear extraordinary. In some parts of Hano-
ver these men now present themselves in two dis-
tinct classes, with a variety of subdivisions. They
are called Leibeigeners and Meyers. The leibei-
geners are in the state of the English villein, when
his labor rent had ceased to be arbitrary, but was
still paid in kind, after his hereditary claim to his
allotment had been recognized. The leibeigener
pays a labor rent, in kind, and cultivates the lands
of the landlord, for a certain number of days in the
year; brings home the lord's wood, performs other
' Hodgskin, \'ol. H. ji. \}0.
Rents. 43
services when called upon, and is subjected to some Book i.
most burthensome and vexatious restrictions as to the ?^^' "*
Sect. 6.
mode of cropping his land, which must be so ar- ,
ranged as to leave one third always in fallow, for i"^^*"".
® _ • ' Rents m
the proprietor's flocks to range over. But still the Germany,
conditions on which he holds the land are fixed; and
it descends to his children. He is much in the
position in which the Livonian proprietors have
lately placed their serf tenants, except that he is
not tied to the soil.
The meyer tenant is a bauer whose labor rents
have been commuted for money or a corn rent, and
in some cases for a definite portion of the crops :
though he is still liable to some trifling services.
The proprietor cannot raise the rent, nor can he
refuse to renew the lease, unless the heir be an
idiot, or the rent in arrear : but as this tenure in
many instances is modern, the rent often amounts
to nearly the full value of the land. This tenure
is gradually* displacing that of the leibeigeners, and
the tenant under it is much in the position of the
English copyholder, when he had ceased to perform
services in kind, and before his quit rents had become
a mere nominal payment. The meyer pays a fine
on alienation.
In some cases the whole of an estate is occu-
pied by meycrs and leibeigeners, and the proprietor
has no domain land at all.
The bauers throughout Germany are nearly all
free : chained by many ties to the soil, they are
no longer the property of its proprietors, or le-
gally confined to the spot tiiey cultivate. But
41 Rents.
Book I. they liavc gained tliis freedom, not, as in England,
Chap. ii. ^y ^^^ gradual wearing out of their chains, but by
^' the determined exertion of their sovereigns. A
Labor woman, Sophia Magdalena of Denmark, gave, in
Gemaiy. 1761, oue of the earliest examples of this spirit.
Between 1770 and 1790, it was followed by the
Margrave of Baden and other minor princes. In
1781, Joseph II. abolished slavery in the German
dominions of Austria. Since 1810 it has ceased
in Prussia, and very lately in INIecklenburg \
The higher classes have partaken largely for
many generations of the general civilization of
Europe. To their lothing at the degraded condi-
tion of their inferiors, the latter owe an emanci-
pation from personal thraldom, of which in some
cases they hardly yet feel the full value. At the
moment in which they became free men they be-
come in some instances small proprietors, subject to
a perpetual rent charge. To their forcible invest-
ment with this character in Prussia, we shall here-
after have occasion to advert.
SECTION VII.
Having now traced the system of labor rents
from Russia to the Rhine*, we may quit it. Frag-
ments of it indeed still subsist to the westward of
> Schmalz, Vol. I. p. 1C4.
2 On the very poor soils in the German provinces west of
the Rhine, labor rents still, I am told, prevail.
Rents. 45
the Rhine ; the relics for the most part of a storm Book i.
and inundation, which have passed over and away; secf?^
but they are thinly scattered, and cease to give any
peculiar form and complexion to the relations be- t^^Zm
tween the different orders of society. Germany.
Of these fragments however, one of the most
interesting to us, subsists, under a very primitive
form, in a corner of our own island. In the
northern Highlands, the chief seems never to have
been able to introduce either produce or money
rents, exclusively, that is, to trust his people with
the task of producing subsistence for himself and
his households. Each chief therefore kept in his
hands a considerable domain ; the remainder of his
country was parcelled out among the tacksmen or
inferior gentry of the clan, and these again divid-
ed it among a race of tenants, who paid a large
proportion of the stipulated rent in labor, poultry,
eggs, and articles of domestic produce, exactly simi-
lar to those which form a part of the dues of the
Hungarian peasant. .In their rent rolls, servitude
is included as a prominent and important article.
The interest of the proprietors has led them, since
1745, to substitute for this race of tenantry, ex-
tensive sheep farmers. The cultivation of the old
tenantry appears to have been slothful, ignorant,
and inefficient, and their situation extremely mise-
rable : but still these northern serfs, whose spirit
had never been subdued by personal bondage, clung
fondly to their homes, and have been removed, we
know, only by a difficult and painful process.
The agent of the Marquis of Stafford has
46 Rents.
Book I. published an account of the changes now taking
Sect 7" pl^c^ i^ Sutherland, which contains a very inter-
esting picture of the habits, character, and circum-
R^^'in stances this system had produced there ^ Its last
Germany, rclics are howcver fast wearing away, and when a
few leases to existing tacksmen have expired, labor
rents will finally disappear from Great Britain.
It has been common to speak of the services
due from serfs throughout Europe as feudal ser-
vices, and of the relation between them and the
proprietors as part of the feudal system. This is
by no means correct. The feudal ties originated in
a plan of military defence, made necessary by the
circumstances, and congenial to the habits, of the
barbaiians who had quartered themselves in Western
Europe. The granter of a feud deliberately divested
himself on certain specified conditions, of all right
to the possession of the land which he abandoned
to his vassal. The object in labor rents was produce
alone : they arose in Europe as in the Society Islands,
from a mode of cultivation which the rudeness of
the people made necessary, if any rent at all was to
be exacted from them : and the proprietor never deli-
berately divested himself of the right of resuming,
' Those who wish thoroughly to understand the spirit and
effects of the eld Highland modes of dividing and cultivating
the soil, and the consequences of the violent change effected
since 1745, may consult the work of Lord Selkirk, published
in 1805, entitled "Observations on the present state of the
Highlands of Scotland, with a view of the causes and probable
consequences of Emigration;" it will be found able, interesting,
and instructive.
Rents. 4i*t
at his pleasure, the possession of the allotments Book i.
occupied by his serfs; though usage and prescrip- „*^'"'
tion permitted, in the course of ages, a claim to
hereditary occupation on their part to establish itself. ^^^ •
The feudal system, with its scheme of military ser- Germany.
vice, and nicely graduated scale of fealty and limited
obedience, never made much way to the east of
Prussia. But it is precisely in those eastern parts
of Europe, that labor rents have prevailed the most
widely and the longest. It would not indeed be
difficult to shew, were this the place for it, that
the multiplication of the feudal vassals who were
freemen by virtue of their tenure and their swords,
prevented labor rents from ever prevailing so ex-
clusively over the surface of western Europe, as
they have always prevailed, and do now prevail,
over its eastern division.
[ifl^
SECTION VIII.
Summary of Serf Rents.
We have observed serf rents, in the different ^°°k ^•
countries in which tliey still prevail, and as they ggcfs
have been variously affected by time and circum-
stances. It will be convenient, perhaps to recall in ^^'"^ i^ents.
a short summary the most marked features common
to the system in all its modifications, and to collect
into one view the general principles suggested by
the facts to which we have referred. This plan we
shall pursue with the other divisions of peasant
rents, as we successively arrive at them.
48 Reittii.
Dependence of' Wages on Rents.
Book I. The most marked feature of a system of serf
<^hap. 11. j.gjj^g ig Qjjg which it has in common with all the
Sect. 8.
forms of peasant rents ; and that is, the strict con-
Dependence nexion it crcates between the waeres of labor and
of Wages . °
on Rents, rcnts. The serfs constitute the great body of la-
borers in eastern Europe. The real wages of the
serf, the wealth he annually consumes, depend on
what he is able to extract from his allotment of
land ; and this again depends, partly on its extent
and fertility, partly on the culture he is able to
bestow upon it. But the labor he can exert for
his own purposes is limited by that which he yields
as a rent to his landlord. This varies of course in
different countries, and occasionally from time to
time in the same country, sometimes directly and
avowedly, sometimes indirectly and almost insen-
sibly. Thus in Hungary, the number of days labor
nominally due from the peasants for each session
of land, is doubled in practice by the commutation
into labor of many other dues, all trifling, and some
very indefinite. In most places too, the authority
of the landlord enables him, at very inadequate
prices, to command, in addition to the labor for-
mally due to him, as much of the peasant's time
and exertions as he pleases. Where claims upon
his time are thus multiplied, the ground of the
serf must be imperfectly tilled, and after a cer-
tain point, with each advance in the exactions of
the landlord, the produce of the peasant's allotment,
his real wages, must become less.
Rents. 49
To understand, then, the condition of the serf Book i.
laborers and the causes which determine the actual ^^'^^' ""
Sect. 8.
amount of their wages, a detailed account is neces-
sary of their contract with the proprietors, and of
the manner in which that contract is practically
interpreted and enforced. This active influence of
the nature and amount of the rents they pay on the
revenues aiid condition of the labouring class, is
one of the most important effects of the existence
of a system of labor rents. We shall find however
the same effect, produced in a somewhat different
manner, characterizing peasant rents in all their
forms.
Inefficiency of Agricultural Labor.
The next prominent feature of a system of labor
or serf rents, is peculiar to that form of tenancy ; it
is, its singular effect in degrading the industrious
habits of the laborers, and making them inefficient
instruments of cultivation.
The peasant who depends for his food upon his
labor in his own allotment of ground, and is yet
liable to be called away at the discretion and con-
venience of another person to work upon other lands,
in the produce of which he is not to share, is natu-
rally a reluctant laborer. When long prescription has
engendered a feeling, that he is a coproprietor, at
least, in the spot of ground which he occupies,
then this reluctance to be called from the care of
it to perform his task of forced labor elsewhere,
is heightened by a vague sense of oppression, and
becomes more dogged and sullen. From such men
D
Sect. 8.
50 Rents.
Book 1. who havc DO iTiotive for exertion, but the fear of
^P-"- the lash, strenuous labor is not to be expected.
Accordingly, the exceeding worthlessness of serf
labor is beginning to be thoroughly understood in
all those parts of Europe in which it prevails.
The Russians, or rather those German writers
who have observed the manners and habits of Russia,
state some strong facts on this point. Two Middle-
sex mowers, they say, will mow in a day as much
grass as six Russian serfs, and in spite of the
dearness of provisions in England, and their cheap-
ness in Russia, the mowing a quantity of hay which
would cost an English farmer half a copeck, will
cost a Russian proprietor three or four copecks\
The Prussian counsellor of state Jacob is considered
to have proved, that in Russia, where every thing is
cheap, the labor of a serf is doubly as expensive as
that of a laborer in England^. Mr. Schmalz gives
a startling account of the unproductiveness of serf
labor in Prussia, from his own knowledge and ob-
servation^. In Austria, it is distinctly stated, that
the labor of a serf is equal to only one third of that
of a free hired laborer. This calculation, made in
an ^ble work on Agriculture (with some extracts
from which I have been favored), is applied to the
practical purpose of deciding on the number of
laborers necessary to cultivate an estate of a given
magnitude. So palpable indeed are the* ill effects
* Schmalz, Economic Polit. French translation. Vol. I. p. 66.
« Schmalz, Vol. II. p. 103. ^ Vol. II. p. IO7.
Rents. 51
of labor rents on the industry of the agricultural Book i.
population, that in Austria itself, where proposals ggcfs
for changes of any kind do not readily make their
way, schemes and plans for the commutation of labor
rents are as popular as in the more stirring German
provinces of the north.
Labor rents have another bad effect on the na-
tional industry : the indolence and carelessness of
the serfs are apt to corrupt the free laborers who
may come in contact with them. "The existence
of forced labor," says Schmalz, who lived in the
midst of it, "habituates men to indolence; every
"where the work done by forced labor is ill done:
" wherever it prevails, day laborers and even domes-
"tic servants perform their work ill\" A striking
example of the mischievous influence of the habits
formed by these labor rents, occurred lately in the
north of Germany. A new road is at this time
making, which is to connect Hamburgh and the
Elbe, with Berlin ; it passes over the sterile sands
of which so much of the north of Germany consists,
and the materials for it are supplied by those iso-
lated blocks of granite, of which the presence on
the surface of those sands forms a notorious geolo-
gical puzzle. These blocks, transported to the line
of road, are broken to the proper size by workmen,
some of whom are Prussian free laborers, others lei-
beigeners of the Mecklenburg territory, through a
part of which the road passes. They are paid a
* Schmalz, Vol. II. p. 107.
d2
5a Rents.
Book I. stipulated sum for breaking a certain quantity, and
^' ■ all are paid alike. Yet the leibeigeners could not
at first be prevailed upon to break more than one
third of the quantity which formed the ordinary
task of the Prussians. The men were mixed, in
the hope that the example and the gains of the
more industrious, would animate the sluggish. A
contrary effect followed ; the leibeigeners did not
improve, but the exertions of the other laborers sen-
sibly slackened, and at the time my informant (the
English engineer who superintended the road) was
speaking to me, the men were again at work in
separate gangs, carefully kept asunder.
In Prussia, before 1811, two thirds of the whole
population consisted of leibeigeners, or of an enslaved
serf tenantry, in a yet more backward stated In
other parts of eastern and northern Europe, similar
classes compose a yet larger proportion of the peo-
ple. Upon their hands, either as principals, or as
the most essential instruments, rests the task of
making the soil productive, the only species of
industry yet carried on to any great extent. The
inefficiency of this large portion of the productive
laborers of the community, their dislike to steady
exertions when working for others, their want of
skill, means, and energy, when employed on their
own allotments, must have a disastrous influence on
the annual produce of the land and labor of their
territory, and tend to keep their country in a state
' Jacob's Germany, p. 235.
Rents. 53
of comparative poverty and political feebleness ; which Book i.
great extent, and the cheapness of human labor g^^g/
and life for military purposes, have only partially
balanced.
Inefficient Superintendence of Ijahor.
The next peculiarity of a system of labor rents
very considerably aggravates the bad effects of that
inefficiency, which seems the inseparable character-
istic of the labor of serfs. This peculiarity is the
lax superintendence, the imperfect assistance of the
landed proprietors ; who are necessarily, in their cha-
racter of cultivators of their own domains, the only
guides and directors of the industry of the agri-
cultural population.
The Russian, Polish, Hungarian, or German
nobles, elevated, when not corrupted, by the privi-
leges and habits of their order, have seldom incli-
nation to bestow attention on the detail of the labors
of husbandry ; and perhaps yet more seldom the
means of saving capital and using it^. Seed pro-
duced from the estate is sown by the labor of
the tenants, who in due time gather the harvest
into the barns of the proprietor. This process is
repeated in a slovenly manner, till the land is
^ The Russian government, hoping to remedy this last
defect, established a bank for the express purpose of advancing
loans to the nobles to be employed in improving the cultivation
of their estates. The experiment did not succeed. The nobles
vsrere observed to grow suddenly more expensive, but their
estates remained as they were. Storch, Vol. IV. p. 288.
54 Rents.
Book I. exceedingly impoverished \ and is continued while
^Jg" there is a prospect of the smallest gain. These
operations are contrived and directed as clumsily
and negligently as they are executed.
There are exceptions no doubt ; a few indivi-
dual proprietors devote themselves with zeal to
the improvement of agriculture. This may always
be expected. When a similar race of tenantry
occupied England, Robert de Rulos, the chamber-
lain of the Conqueror, distinguished himself by im-
provements which he introduced upon his estates,
of sufficient consequence to induce the historians
of the age to hand down his name to posterity,
as a public benefactor. On looking now at the
different countries of eastern Europe, we shall find
a sprinkling of men who are the Robert de Rulos'
of their day ; but it would be hopeless and irrational
to expect, that a race of noble proprietors, fenced
round with privileges and dignity, and attracted
to military and political pursuits by the advantages
and habits of their station, should ever become atten-
tive cultivators as a body.
There remains for them the expedient of edu-
cating and employing able and scientific managers,
and on a few of the large estates, belonging to rich
proprietors, this is very carefully and well done. But
the training and employing such a class of men,
is first very expensive, and is then nearly useless
unless they can be supplied freely with capital as
' Jacob's First Report.
Rents. 55
the means of carrying into effect the improved Book i.
systems which they have been taught. These cir- g^Xs.
cumstances confine to narrow limits the number
of estates conducted by such a description of mana-
gers; and taking large districts only into account,
the paucity of mind and skill, steadily applied to
agriculture, and the poor use which is made of
the reluctant labor of the peasantry, furnish another
striking feature of the system of cultivation by a
serf tenantry.
Small numbers of independent Classes.
The two circumstances just pointed out, the
indolence of the laborers, and the inefficiency of the
directors of labor, are causes which make the agri-
cultural produce of countries cultivated by serfs,
extremely small when compared with their extent.
It follows that, even where the whole of the raw
produce raised is consumed at home (which from
other causes it rarely is), still, after the peasantry
have been fed, the numbers of the non-agricultural
classes maintained, are small.
We have seen that in Prussia two thirds of
the whole population were bauers : in other parts
of the east of Europe, the numbers of the classes
not connected with agriculture are yet smaller, com-
pared with the extent of their territory, or the gross
amount of their population. In Hungary, we have
observed that there were but thirty thousand arti-
zans when there were eight millions of inhabitants,
and no where does the number of the class which
is unconnected with the soil reach the size at which
56 Rents.
Book I. it may be observed in countries cultivated under
Sect s" better systems.
Authority of Laiidlords over Tenants.
Another marked and important effect of a system
of labor rents, is the constant coercion which is ne-
cessary to make it to any extent efficient, and the
arbitrary authority this circumstance throws into the
hands of the landlords, under any possible modifica-
tions of the tenure. We have seen that at one stage
of their progress throughout Europe, the serfs have
almost universally been at one time actual slaves.
This extreme state of things has indeed changed,
except in Russia alone. But the authority of the
proprietors over the serfs, exercised through the me-
dium of judicial tribunals, in which the nobles are
the judges, has not ceased to be extremely arbi-
trary. While the system of labor rents exists to
any practical purpose, this can hardly be otherwise.
While large domains are cultivated by agricultural
labor, due from a numerous tenantry, the necessary
work must be delayed, embarrassed, and frequently
altogether suspended, if a law-suit before independent
tribunals were the only mode of settling a dispute
with a reluctant or refractory laborer.^ Hence the
^ See Jacob's Germany, p. 342, tor an instance of the
manner in which the rights of the proprietors are frustrated
when they are by chance driven to the tribunals. The Saxon
courts of justice seem to be actuated, when they have an oppor-
tunity to interfere between proprietor and tenant, by the same
bias towards freedom which did honor to those of England, and
seem too to approach their object with much of the astuteness
which suggested some of our own legal proceedings.
Rents. 57
judicial power has rarely, if ever, been abandoned by Book r.
the proprietors, even where the personal freedom of ^Xs*
the serf has been recognized. The Hungarian noble
still exercises criminal and civil jurisdiction by his
officers. Even in Germany, where the authority
of the general government has made more way,
and where the system of labor rents is in a m.ore
advanced stage of decomposition, the whole country
till very recently was covered by domainial tribu-
nals, which were at one time divided and multi-
plied- to such excess, that the jurisdiction of some
of them is said to have comprehended only a dwell-
ing-house, and as much ground as is found within
the line marked by the water-drip from the eaves.*
On the estates of the sovereign and of large pro-
prietors, this authority is usually administered by
the Amtmen, who, either as tenants or stewards,
have charge of the domain.
In the west of Europe, as in France for instance,
the pride of the nobility, and the connivance or
indolence of the government, kept these tribunals
in existence, long after the altered relations of the
cultivators and their landlords had made them use-
less : but in the east of Europe it would really be
difficult to dispense with them : and where the
sovereigns are alive to the inconvenience of these
* Hodgskin, Vol. II. p. 6. In Hanover, some of these minute
patrimonial courts have been abolished; but there are still, or
were, so late as 18 19, no less than l60 local tribunals on the
royal domain, besides all those belonging to individual pro-
prietors and to towns.
58 Rents.
Book I. petty tribunals (which they do not seem always
^sTa a"' *® ^^)' *^^y ^^^^ hardly venture on depriving the
1_ proprietors of all summary authority over their
tenantry, while any considerable portion of their
territory is made productive by the use of labor
rents alone. So naturally does the usefulness of
this jurisdiction of the proprietors accompany the
existence of labor rents, that I perceive by the
public papers, in some parts of the Danish domi-
nions, where a general commutation of these rents
has taken place, the proprietors have made a volun-
tary offer to the crown of abandoning their judicial
authority altogether.
The serf, however, who is liable to have claims
upon his time and labor interpreted, and summarily
enforced, by the person who makes those claims,
can never be more than half a freeman, even when
he has ceased to be wholly a slave.
The Power and Influence of the Aristocracy.
The subjection of the serfs to the proprietors,
under all the modifications of their tenure, throws
inevitably great power and influence into the hands
of the landed body. The landholders themselves
may enjoy very different measures of political free-
dom. We may observe them, wholly unawed by
the crown, exercising the wild licence of the Polish
nobility ; or, when united with other states under
a powerful sovereign, as in the case of Hungary,
still able to maintain the privileges of their order
with a degree of independence which the govern-
ment feels it would be impolitic to provoke, even
Rents. 59
though it were possible to overwhelm it : or we ^"^"^ \\
may see them, as in Russia, so circumstanced, that scct. 8.
legal bounds to the power of the sovereign are
unthought of. Still in all these different cases
the power of the aristocracy over the mass of the
people creates a moral influence, which must be
felt by the general government, and, if not obeyed,
must to some extent be attended to. From this
influence, even the absolute government of the Rus-
sian Emperor receives an unacknowledged but power-
ful check, sufficient to distinguish it from an Asiatic
despotism, to ensure a wholesome dominion to forms
and usages, and to prescribe decency and limits even
to caprice and injustice. Amidst the mischiefs in-
cident to this mode of occupying the soil, this
political effect must be distinguished as being, when
reacting on a strong general government, the source
of benefits to the people which are important though
imperfect. It has for many centuries staved off un-
limited despotism from a large portion of Europe.
As the general government becomes feeble, the
influence of such an aristocracy may be expected of
course to shew itself more active and dominant ;
and then there are doubtless instances of its assum-
ing the form of a national evil.
Want of Popular Injluence in the Political
Constitution of such Countries.
The small numbers and small importance of the
classes who are independent of the soil, the absence
on the soil itself of any class like our farmers, the
60 Reyits.
Book I. abject dependence of the serfs on the proprietors.
Chap. n. j^j^j^g ^ ^^jjj influence of a third estate in the con-
Sect. 8. •'
stitution of countries in which labor rents prevail
utterly nugatory. The government of such coun-
tries must be shared by the sovereign and the aris-
tocracy : it may be shared very unequally ; they may
control each other in different degrees ; but on their
joint authority alone the public power must rest.
Tracing back the history of our own country we
observe, that while a similar system prevailed in
England, the absence of any efficient third estate,
made our government a rude mixture- of monarchy
and a landed aristocracy, struggling fiercely, and
each threatening to extinguish the other in its turn.
It is the very same want of a third estate, which
makes it so difficult to establish in many continental
nations, those imitations of the actual English Con-
stitution, which we have seen of late frequently at-
tempted. Before the people of eastern Europe
can have governments, of which the springs and
weights really resemble those of the English, a
space of time must elapse sufficient to introduce
very different ingredients into their social elements.
Till then, we may expect to see yet more well-
meant attempts of sovereigns and nobles end in
disappointment. And when society has undergone
the necessary change, serf rents, we may venture
to predict, will have been superseded, and will liave
ceased to exist: except perhaps in some obsolete
shapes and names, from which, as in the case of
the copyholds of England, all life and power have
departed.
Remits. 61
JVhat determines the Amount of Labor Rents.
The value of serf or labor rents, the advantages
which the proprietor derives from the lands allotted
to the serfs, depend partly upon the quantity of
labor exacted, and partly upon the skill used in ap-
plying it. The proprietor, therefore, may increase
the rent of the land held by his serfs, either by
exacting more labor from them, or by using their
labor more efficiently.
If more labor is exacted from the serf, he is
in fact thrust farther downwards in the scale of
comfort and respectability ; his exertions become
more reluctant, more languid, and inefficient; the
proprietor gains little by his increased services; the
community gains nothing by the rise of rents; for
if the lands held by the proprietors be better tilled
by the additional culture bestowed upon them, those
held by the serfs must be worse tilled when labor
is withdrawn from them. The second mode of in-
creasing the rents of the lands held by the serfs,
the using the labor of the tenantry more skilfully
and efficiently, is attended by no disadvantages.
It leads to an unquestionable augmentation of the
revenues of the nation. The lands held by the
proprietors produce more, those held by the serfs
do not produce less. But the unfitness of the pro-
prietors, as a body, to advance the science of agri-
culture, or improve the conduct of its details, makes
this mode of increasing the rents derived from the
lands which the serfs hold, rare. It would be
visionary to count upon it as the source of any
Book I.
Chap. ii.
Sect. 8.
Book 1.
Chap. ii.
Sect. 8. class
62 Rents.
general improveinent in the revenues of the landed
A cJumge from Lahor Rents to Produce Rents-
always desirable.
The illusory nature of all attempts to increase
labor rents by exacting more and more labor from
the serfs, and the repugnance of the proprietors,
as a body, to the task of increasing their revenue
by the better application of the labor due to them,
make us conclude that the substitution of produce
or money rents is the only step by which the in-
terests of the landlords of serfs can be substantially
and permanently promoted. It is impossible to cast
an eye on what is passing in the east of Europe
without seeing how deeply this is felt by the pro-
prietors themselves. The irksomeness of the task of
superintending the operations of agriculture, the
uncertainty of their returns, and the burthensome
nature of their connexion with their tenantry, make
them every where anxious for a change. To these
motives we must add first, the gradual increase in
some districts of the prescriptive rights of the serfs to
the hereditary possession of their allotments ; wliich
makes them more unmanageable and less profitable
tenants ; and then the example of western Kurope,
with which the proprietors of its eastern division
are familiarly acquainted ; and which presents to
them a race of landlords freed from almost all the
vexations and embarrassments with wliich the ma-
nagement of their own estates is encumbered. In
Rents. 63
the desire of the proprietors for a change, the go- i^ook i.
vernments have joined heartily. A wish to extend sect!8"
the authority and protection of the general govern-
ment over the mass of cultivators, and to increase
their efficiency, and through that the wealth and
financial resources of the state, has led the different
sovereigns always to co-operate, and often to take
the lead, in putting an end to the personal de-
pendence of the serf, and modifying the terms of
his tenure. To these reasons of the sovereigns and
landlords, dictated hy obvious self-interest, we must
add other motives which do honor to their characters
and to the age, the existence of which it would be
a mere affectation of hard-hearted wisdom to doubt ;
namely, a paternal desire on the part of sovereigns
to elevate the condition, and increase the comforts,
of the most numerous class of the human beings
committed to their charge ; and a philanthropic
dislike on the part of the proprietors to be sur-
rounded by a race of wretched dependents, whose
degradation and misery reflect discredit on them-
selves. These feelings have produced the ferment-
ation on the subject of labor rents, which is at
this moment working throughout the large divi-
sion of Europe in which they prevail. — From the
crown lands in Russia, through Poland S Hungary,
^ In the work (several times before quoted) of Mr. Burnett,
of Baliol College, Oxford, entitled " A View of the present State
of Poland," the reader will find some curious details of the state
of loathsome moral degradation to which the Polish peasants are
reduced. The author was for some time private tutor in a
Polish family.
64 Rents.
BooKi. and Germany, there have been within the last
Secr«! century, or are now, plans and schemes on foot,
either at once or gradually to get rid of the
tenure, or greatly to modify its effects, and im-
prove its character ; and if the wishes, or the au-
thority, of the state, or of the proprietors, could
abolish the system and substitute a better in its
plaice, it would vanish from the face of Europe.
The actual poverty of the serfs, however, and the
degradation of their habits of industry, present an
insurmountable obstacle to any general change
which is to be complete and sudden. In their im-
perfect civilization and half savage carelessness, the
necessity originated which forced proprietors them-
selves to raise, the produce on which their families
were to subsist. That necessity has not ceased ; the
tenantry are not yet ripe — in some instances, not
riper than they were 1000 years ago — to be en-
trusted with the responsibility of raising and pay-
ing produce rents. But as the past progress and
actual circumstances of different districts are found
unlike, so their capacity for present change differs
in kind and degree. Hence the great variety ob-
servable in plans for altering the relations between
the serf tenantry and their landlords. Such a va-
riety is exhibited in the Urbarium of Maria The-
resa, in the edict by which the views of the
Livonian nobility were made law ; in the consti-
tution of Poland, and in the decrees of the
sovereigns of smaller districts. The ameliorations
produced by these steps are valuable, if, after having
worked successfully for some time, they prepare the
Labor
Rents.
Rents. Q6
way for two great measures which are the aim of booki.
all parties in a more advanced state of society, gect. s.
that is, first, the general v;ommutation of the re-
venue derived from the allotments of tlie serfs into
produce rents, and then, the establishment on the
domains held by the proprietors themselves of a
race of tenantry able to relieve them from the
task of cultivation, and to pay either produce or
money rents. But these results are difficult and
distant. The manner in which such a change was
effected in England, is that in which it is most
easy and safe. It was the growth of centuries ; it
took place insensibly : the villeins we know gradually
assumed the character of copyholders paying fixed
dues, which again were slowly commuted for money :
in the mean time, the growth of the free popula-
tion multiplied the numbers of hired laborers, by
whose assistance the proprietors might cultivate their
domains, without serf labor ; and the increase and
progressive prosperity of an intermediate class of
agricultural capitalists supplied, after a long inter-
val, a race of men fitted to relieve the proprietors
from the charge of agriculture altogether, and en-
abled to pay their rents in money from the increase
of internal commerce, and of the market provided
by non-agricultural classes for their produce. A
process similar to this has been going on in the
western part of Germany, though it is yet far in-
deed from being complete there. The enslaved serf
has become a free Leibeigener with fixed services :
the Leibeigener is changing gradually into a meyer,
whose services are commuted for produce or money ;
E
Labor
RentM.
66 RenU.
Book I. some fcw^ free laborers exist, and are hired by the
s^cus! proprietors who farm their domains; and of these
domains a new race of tenantry are in some in-
stances beginning to take possession, advancing the
necessary capital, paying money rents, and discharg-
ing the land-owners from all share in the task of
cultivation.
In the mean time, it is not surprising that the
sovereigns and proprietors of countries further east,
who see this process hardly begun amongst them-
selves, and know that it may take centuries to
complete itself, should feel impatient of such delay
in the career of their improvement, and determine
forcibly to anticipate the slow advance of unpur-
posed change.
The Prussian government has taken the most
decisive and extensive measures in this spirit.
Throughout a great part of Prussia, the serfs had
acquired prescriptive rights, either to the hereditary
possession of their allotments, or to the occupation
of them for life ; rights, which though imperfect,
made any marked change difficult. To declare the
serfs mere tenants at will, would have had the ap-
pearance of great harshness, and could not probably
have been attempted on a large scale, without vio-
lence and convulsion. To declare them proprietors
of the soil they occupied, was not doing justice to
the fair claims of the landowners. The government
steered a middle course. In 1811 labor rents to the
east of the Elbe were suppressed, and it was de-
' Tiiey are very few.
Rents. 67
cided, that the peasants who had acquired an here- ^^^'^ ^•
ditary right to their allotments should pay the sect. 8.
proprietors a third of the produce : that those who
had only a claim to a lifehold possession should pay i^^nts.
half the produce : the peasants were to find all
capital and to pay all expences and taxes^.
These rents are heavy : half the produce, the
tenants providing capital and paying all expences,
is the heaviest rent known in Europe, with the
exception of those paid by the Neapolitan metayers,
whose soil will bear no comparison with the Prussian
sands, and is in fact unrivalled for productiveness
and easy tillage. It is not surprising that some
of the serfs should have declined to accede to the
arrangement, although it delivered them from a state
of virtual^ bondage, and guaranteed their right to
possession.
Two great objects were sought by this arrange-
ment ; the improvement of the condition of the
peasantry, and the promotion- of good agriculture
among the proprietors. Its immediate effects have
been to divide the surface of the country between
a race of small proprietors subject to a heavy rent
charge, and a body of large landholders farming
2 Different statements have been published as to the terms of
this general commutation. Schmalz, however, who was " con-
seiller intime " of the King of Prussia, and Professor " du droit
public" at Berlin, must be considered unquestionable authority.
Schmalz, Vol. II. p. 105.
3 Personal bondage had legally ceased to exist from the 10th
November, 1810. Schmalz, Vol. II. p. 103.
E 2
68 Reyits.
Book I
Chap. ii.
their own domains. That the condition of the pea-
Sect 8. sants will be at first improved, supposing them not
to be weighed down by the rents, is sufficiently
Rents, clear; their future progress, however, justifies some
apprehensions : they are exactly in the condition in
which the animal disposition^ to increase their num-
bers is checked by the fewest of those balancing
motives and desires which regulate the increase of
superior ranks or of more civilized people, and if
the too great subdivision of their allotments is not
guarded against in time, they will probably, in the
course of a very few generations^ be more miserable
than their ancestors were as serfs, and will certainly
be more hopeless and helpless in their misery, since
they will have no landlord to resort to. In the mean
time a race of free laborers will doubtless spring
up, with whose assistance the proprietors may insti-
tute a better course of husbandry on their domains,
but they will still have to provide capital, atten-
tion, and science, and in the two first of these it
is to be feared that, as a body, they will always
be deficient. More advances must be made by
them in money than when they cultivated with
the assistance of their serfs, and this circumstance
will increase their difficulties and multiply the
chances of their failure. After all, the task of cul-
tivation is ungenial to them. Their objects will
never be fully attained till a race of tenantry ap-
* The actual disposition of the population to increase with
extreme rapidity shews that these apprehensions are far from
fanciful. See Jacob's Second Report.
Rents 69
pears, able to advance the necessary capital and ^'^^ '•
undertake for a money rent. These are likely to seXc"
appear slowly in Prussia, even though they should
appear there much less slowly than in some of the ]^^,
surrounding nations. The body of the peasants, it is
tolerably evident already, will not grow rich enough to
supply them, and they must spring out of the bosom
of other classes. The comparative numbers, and
therefore joint wealth of these, are small, and the
process, by which they can become the farmers of
all the domains of an extensive country, must be
slow indeed.
In the mean time, there will be great differences
in this respect between different parts of Germany.
Amtmen, who occupy the land, not as agents, but
tenants, are already common in some states : in
others almost unknown. Those districts of course
will profit the most rapidly and largely by the late
changes, w^hich were approaching themselves to the
condition in which they are now placed, and were
provided with some of the elements of a new and
better state of things. Those in which the actual
changes were prepared by no spontaneous advances,
will for some time disappoint, it is to be feared,
in a great degree, the benevolent impatience of
those statesmen, who wished to speed them forcibly
in paths of improvement, which they are not full
grown and strong enough to tread steadily.
Leaving however individual instances, and sur-
veying the whole broad mass of labor rents through-
out that larger division of Europe in which they
still preponderate, either entire, or in different stages
70 Rents.
^<~' \ of decomposition, it will be sufficiently obvious, that
secr«! some ages must elapse, before those new elements
of society are perfected, and that better state of
Rent's, things matured, in which this mode of tenure is
destined finally to merge. For a long and in-
definite period now before us, therefore, the ancient
system of serf rents, modified in its forms, but
enduring in its effects, will imprint much of their
character on those imperfect institutions which are
slowly springing up from its decay. The future
progress of eastern Europe, the sources of its
wealth, and strength, and all the elements of its
social and political institutions, will continue to be
mainly influenced by the results of the gradual
alterations now taking place in those relations be-
tween the proprietors and cultivators of the soil,
which have hitherto formed the rude bond by which
society has been held together. The progress, how-
ever, of this, the larger part of the most important
division of the globe, must for some generations
be a spectacle of deep interest to us, to their im-
mediate western neighbours, and to all the nations,
in fact, who have hitherto kept the lead in the
career of European civilization. We see the masses
of people who occupy the eastern and northern divi-
sion of our quarter of the earth, stirring and instinct
wdth a new spirit of life and power, beginning to
acquire fresh intellect and a less shackled industry,
and to unfold more efficiently the moral and physi-
cal capabilities of their huge territories. They already
assume a station in Europe somewhat proportioned
to the extent of their natural resources ; and the
Rents. 71
fate of those nations which have hitherto been the ®°°* };
depositaries of the civilization of the modern world, sect. 8.
is for the future inseparably connected with events,
which the career of these powerful neighbours must R^nts.
engender. We cannot but see how intimately the
course of that career is dependent on present and
future changes in the system of labor rents, and
for this cause surely, if for no other, that system
deserves the careful attention of all who may apply
themselves to the task of explaining the nature of
the re7it of land, and examining its influence on i
the character and fortunes of different nations.
Those indeed, who value what is called political
economy, chiefly because it leads to an insight
into the manner in which the physical circum-
stances, which surround man on earth, develope or
sway his moral character, will feel interested on
yet higher grounds in tracing the effects of a sys-
tem, springing out of that common necessity, which,
for a long period in the growth of nations, binds
the majority of their population to the earth they
till ; a system, which has continued for a series of
ages to stamp its peculiar impress on the political,
the intellectual, and moral features of so large a di-
vision of the human race'.
^ When these pages were first written, I had not seen the
Second Report of Mr. Jacob, which has since been published
in a form suited to general circulation. That gentleman has
lately been on the spot, and has cast his extremely acute and
practised eye upon the actual condition and probable progress
of the agricultural portion of eastern Europe. He has come
to
Sect.
I>abor
72 Rents.
Book I. to results remarkably similar to those which I had ventured
Chap. ii. to suggest from a more distant and general knowledge of their
circumstances. The still predominant influence of labor rents:
the general want of capital among the proprietors: the rapid
Rents. increase in the numbers of the peasant cultivators which has
been taking place since their dependence on the landlords has
been less servile: the feeble beneficial effects on agriculture
and on the general composition of society which in twenty years
have sprung from the strong measures of the Prussian govern-
ment: the difficulties which every where oppose themselves
to all sudden changes in the old system of cultivation : the
strong apparent probability that the future progress in the
eastern division of Europe will not, with all the efforts that
are making, be much more rapid than that of this country
when emerging from a similar state of things; all these are
points on which I can now refer with very great satisfaction
to the local knowledge and authority of Mr. Jacob, in sup-
port of the suggestions I have here thrown out. See Second
Report passim, but more especially 140 and the following pages.
73
CHAP. III. SECT. L.
Metayer Rents.
The Metayer is a peasant tenant extracting his ^°°'^..^'
own wages and subsistence from the soil. He pays sect. i.
Si produce rent to the owner of the land, from which
he obtains his food. The landlord, besides supply- Rents.
ing him with the land on which he lives, supplies
him also with the stock by which his labor is
assisted. The payment to the landlord may be con-
sidered, therefore, to consist of two distinct portions :
one constitutes the profits of his stock, the other his
rent.
The stock advanced is ordinarily small. It con-
sists of seed ; of some rude implements ; of the
materials of others which the peasant manufactures ;
and of such materials for his other purposes as the
land itself affords ; building timber, stone, &c. and
occasionally of some draft animals. If not assisted
by the productive powers of the soil, by the ma-
chinery of the earth, this stock would either be
wholly insufficient for the permanent maintenance
of any laborers, or, turned into some other shape,
it would provide for the temporary support of a very
small number. When applied, however, to assist
the peculiar powers of the earth, this small stock
is found sufficient to enable a numerous body of
74 Rents.
Book I. laborcrs permanently to maintain themselves ; and
Selll' in the produce of their industry the landlord shares.
The produce which the possession of land has thus
Si" enabled him to acquire, and which without the land
he could not have acquired, is that portion of the
annual produce of the labor of the country which
falls to his share as a land-holder. It is rent. The
rest is profits. In the more advanced stages of civi-
lization, it is easy to decide in each particular case,
what proportion of the landlord's revenue from a
metayer farm is rent, and what proportion profits.
In the ruder stages, it is more difficult ; but we
shall have occasion to advert to this hereafter.
The existence of such a race of tenantry indi-:
cates some improvement in the body of the people,
compared with the state of things in which serf rents
originate. They are entrusted with the task of pro-
viding the food and annual revenue of the proprietor,
without his superintending, or interfering with, their
exertions.
The metayer, then, must be somewhat supe-
rior in skill and character to the serfs, whose
industry can be safely depended on by the propri-
etor, only while exercised under his direct control,
and whose rents are therefore paid, not in produce,
but in labor. But still the advance of stock by
the proprietor, and the abandonment of the manage-
ment of cultivation to the actual laborcrs, indicate
the continued absence of an intermediate class of
capitalists ; of men able to advance from their own
accumulations the food of the laborer and the stock
by which he is assisted ; and thus to take upon them-
Rents. 75
selves the direction of agriculture. The metayer chaTiiii
system indicates, therefore, a state of society, ad- Sect. i.
vanced, when compared with that in which serf rents "!
prevail ; backward, when compared with that in which Rents.
rents paid by capitalists make their appearance.
It is found springing up in various parts of the
world, engrafted occasionally on the serf rents we
have been reviewing, and more often on the system
of ryot rents we have yet to examine. But it is
in the western division of continental Europe, in
Italy, Savoy, Piedmont, the Valteline, France, and
Spain, that the pure metayer tenantry are the most
common, and it is there that they influence most
decidedly the systems of cultivation and those im-
portant relations between the different orders of
society, which originate in the appropriation of the
soil. Into those countries, once provinces of the
Roman Empire, they were introduced by the Ro-
mans, and, to discover their origin in Europe, we
must turn back our eyes for an instant on the
classical nations of antiquity.
SECTION II.
Of Metayer Rents in Greece.
Greece, when it first presents materials for ^°°^ *•
- , J . . J i Chap. iii.
authentic history, was, for the most part, divided gect. 2.
into small properties cultivated by the labor of the
proprietors, assisted by that of slaves. But before juntl^'^
Greece.
76 Rents.
Book 1. yjQ observe how this state of things led the way to
Sect! 2! the establishment of metayer rents, it should be
remarked, that relics of a system which even in
SJi^ those days bore the marks of antiquity, and was
becoming obsolete, were still to be seen in many
districts of Greece.
Irruptions from other countries, as to the details
of which the learned dispute in vain, had, previous
to the aera of historical certainty, filled several pro-
vinces of Greece with foreign masters. These peo-
ple, in some instances at least, found the original
inhabitants acquainted with agriculture, the toils of
which they had no inclination, perhaps not suffi-
cient skill, to share. They converted therefore the
husbandmen into a peculiar species of tenantry, dif-
fering from the serf tenantry of modern Europe in
this, that though attached to the soil, and a sort
of predial bondsmen, they paid, not labor, but pro-
duce rents, and belonged, in some remarkable in-
stances, not to individuals, but to the state. These
tenants were called in Crete Perioeci, Mnotae, Apha-
miotae ; in Laconia Perioeci and Helots ; in Attica
Thetes and Pelatae ; in Thessaly Penestae, and in
other districts by other names ^
* This sketch of the tenantry peculiar to early Greece might
have been made more extensive and perhaps more precise.
They may be traced in many other districts, and some dis-
tinctions might certainly be drawn between the classes named:
but this is a subject into the details of which it would be dif-
ficult to enter, without either launching into lengthy discussion,
or stating shortly as facts, what arc really only conjectures.
Those who may wish to follow the matter up to ihc original
testimony-
Rents. 77
The produce rents, which this tenantry were book i.
bound in Crete to pay to the government, enabled sea!2!
the legislators of that island to establish public
tables in the different districts, at which the free- Renti'S
men and their families were fed*. This institution <^'^<^-
Lycurgus established or renewed at Lacedaemon,
where the tables were supplied by the produce of
the industry of the Helots; and wherever Syssi-
tiae or common tables can be traced, it is at least
probable, that they were supplied by a similar race
of tenants.
In Attica, the existence of the Thetes or Pelatae
(as this tenantry were there called) exercised no such
influence on the general habits of the citizens as
it did in Crete, in Sparta, and in other Dorian
states ; and when they were restored by Solon to
personal freedom, though not to the political rights
of citizens, the alteration led to no striking results'.
testimony, on which all conclusions relating to it must rest,
may consult Ruhnken's notes on the words ■7re\drr]<; and Trevea--
TiKow in his edition of the Platonic Lexicon of Timaeus, two
notes relating to the institutions of Laconia and Crete, affixed
to Gottling's edition of Aristotle's politics; and above all
Miiller's elaborate history of the Dorian states, a valuable work,
for a translation of which the English public are about to be
indebted, and very deeply indebted certainly, to Messrs. TufF-
nell and Lewis. While referring to the two last of these German
writers, it may be right to mention that there are one or two
points on which I must venture to dissent from their con-
clusions: these are shortly noticed in the Appendix.
2 Aristotle's Politics, Book IL
3 Bceckh, however, seems of opinion that at one period of
the history of Attica, all the cultivators of its territory were
Thetes. (Vol. L p. 250. English Translation.) They may have
been
78 Rents.
Book I. It requires indeed some little attention to dis-
Sbcu 2. ^^^ their past existence among the Athenians ; and
the details of their condition are now perhaps out
R^Zi of the reach of research. MopTTJ was the name ap-
Greece. plied indiflferently, it should seem, both to the share
paid as rent and that retained by the Thetes. The
rent usually consisted of a sixth of the produce,
hence their name of cKTijfxopioi, sometimes it was a
fourth, and then the Pelatae were said xeT^a^^/^etv.
The Penestse of Thessaly were a body of similar
tenantry. With the exception of the districts oc-
cupied by this peculiar species of tenantry \ and
of the lands belonging to towns which seem often
to have let for terms of years at money rents, the
lands of Greece were very generally in the posses-
sion of freemen, cultivating small properties with
the assistance of slaves.
Slaves were very numerous. Men distributed
like the Greeks into small tribes of rude freemen,
surrounded by similar tribes, probably exhibit the
pugnacious qualities of human nature in the highest
degree known. It has often been observed with
truth, that in such a state of society the appearance
of domestic slavery indicates a considerable softening
of the manners. When warrior nations have found
been so; but it is impossible, I think, to read the fifth book
of the Memorabilia, (the OlKovonntoi \6yo<;) of Xenophon,
without feeling persuaded, that in his days the very memory
of such a state of things was gone. The Thetes continued to
exist as a class ia the state long after they had ceased to be
ita exclusive cultivators, if they ever were such.
^ Appendix.
Renta. 79
out the means of makine the labor of captives con- ^'^' ^•
•1 1 • 1 1 -r» Chap.Ui.
tribute to their own ease, they preserve them. Ue- sect. 2.
fore they have made such a discovery they put them
to death. Among the North American Indians, lUnJi^
the labor of no man will do more than maintain ^'^^•
himself; no profit is to be made of a slave; hence,
unless the captive is selected to take upon himself
in the character of a son or husband the task of
protecting and providing food for a family deprived
of its chief, he is invariably slaughtered. Some
tribes of Tartars on the borders of Persia massacre
all the true believers who fall into their hands, but
preserve all heretics and infidels ; because their re-
ligion forbids them to make slaves of true believers,
and allows them to use or sell all others at their
pleasure.
The Greeks used the slaves, with which thei
frequent wars supplied them, in all kinds of menia
and laborious occupations, and a notion that such
occupations could not be filled without slaves, be-
came so familiar, that even their acutest philosophers
seem never to have doubted its accuracy or justice.
A commonwealth, says Aristotle, consists of families,
and a family to be complete must consist of free-
men and slaves ^ and in fixing on the form of go-
vernment, which according to him would be most
perfect, and conduce the most to the happiness of
mankind, he requires that his territory should be
cultivated by slaves of different races and destitute
* Pol. Book L Cap. iii. oUia he Te'\eio« ck hovKuv koi e\ev-
6epo)v.
80 Rents.
Book I. of spirit, that so they may be useful for labor, and
Chap.m. ^^^^ ^Y\Q absence of any disposition to revolt may
U be securely relied on\ The condition of Africa is
Metayer now in this particular, much like that of Greece
Renu in ^ ^ , -, ■^^ ^ • •
Greece. then. Ouc of the late travellers was explaining to
an African chief that there are no slaves in Eng-
land. " No slaves," exclaimed their auditor, " then
what do you do for servants?"
In Greece the labor of cultivation was at first
shared between the master and slave. This must
always be while properties are small ; and accordingly
it was so in Latium. Cincinnatus would have
starved on his four acres, had he trusted to the pro-
duce slaves could extract from it, and neglected to
lay his own hands on the plough. But as civi-
lization went forward in Greece, properties became
enlarged. The proprietors clung to cities ; where
popular governments offered to the active duties to
perform, and objects of ambition to aspire to, and
to the indolent and voluptuous every species of
pleasure, made more seducing by all the embellish-
ments that could be created by a taste and fancy,
which seem to have belonged to those times and
to that people alone. By such occupations and
amusements many of the leading Grecians were so
engrossed, that they refused to give up even the
time and attention necessary to command their
household slaves^ Those who still attended to the
^ Aristot. Pol. Book VII. Cap. x. If these cannot be ob-
tained, Aristotle expresses a wish for barbarian perioeci (com-
pounds of the serf, metayer, and slave) of similar dispositions.
' Arist. Pol. Book I. Cap. iv. Tho.se who are able to escape
these
Rents. 81
management of their farms must have found the task ^'^ }:
difficult and hazardous. Xenophon has left an sect. 2.
accurate picture of the mode in which the Grecian
gentlemen of his day conducted the cultivation of Rems^i^
their estates. In one of the dialogues of the Me- ^'^^"'•
morabilia, Socrates relates a conversation he had had,
with Ischomachus, who was by the confession of all,
men and women, foreigners and citizens, KaXos koi
ayaOo^, an accomplished and good man. Ischomachus
details those particulars of his domestic economy which
had principally earned for him this general praise,
and explains at large his management of his house-
hold, his wife, and finally his estate. It appears
in the progress of the dialogue, that the estate of
Ischomachus was within a short distance of Athens,
that he rode to it very frequently, paid it much
personal attention, and superintended all its arrange-
ments with great care. While cultivation was car-
ried on under the superintendance of such men ;
while proprietors freed from all necessity of per-
sonal labor, liberal, learned, and wealthy, sedulously
applied the powers of their minds to agriculture,
the art made rapid progress, and a succession of
writers on the subject appeared in various parts of
Greece, whose works evidenced both the quantity of
intellect applied to the unfolding the resources of
the soil, and the actual progress of cultivation.
But causes which destroyed this system of ma-
naging the land were silently at work. Even Ischo-
these vexations, pi'ocure a steward to undertake the task; while
they themselves attend to politics or philosophy.
F
Greece.
82 Rents.
Book 1. maclius was obliged to rely much on his e-n-'iaKOTroi
Sect. 2. or overseers ; slaves who were very carefully trained
as bailiffs, like the Roman villici. All estates, how-
ke^Hn ever, could not be like his within a ride of the capi-
tal; the more distant were necessarily confided
almost wholly to these managing slaves ; and their
management, unless they differed utterly from all
other slaves similarly trusted, must have been very
generally careless and bad. As Greece too became
consolidated, first by the JNIacedonian, then the
Roman influence, the possessions of individual pro-
prietors naturally extended themselves over a larger
space, and profitable management by slave agents
must have become more and more impracticable.
At last a tenant was introduced who, receiving from
the landowner his land and stock, became respon-
sible to him for a certain proportion, usually half,
of the produce : and the proprietors gave up finally all
interference with the task of cultivation. These new
tenants were called mortitaj, and they are called so
still in Greece.
The precise date at which they began to super-
sede the cultivation by proprietors is not known.
It is supposed by some that this iiappened after
their connection with Rome, and that /uopTiTT]^^
which is not a word of ancient or classical Greek,
was a translation of the Latin phrase colonus par-
tia7'ius. But we can see so distinctly the same
internal causes which led to the creation of the
Roman tenantry acting in Greece, that it is pro-
bable the mortitae appeared there as soon, if not
sooner, than the colonl partiani among the Ro-
Remits. 83
mans, and that the word fxopTiri^^ was suggested Book i.
by fiopTrj, which we have seen was the name of the g^^ ^ '
produce rent paid by the ancient Thetes of Attica.
However this might be, by such a tenantry the
surface of Greece was gradually occupied ; they sur-
vived the Mahometan conquest, and the lands of
the Turkish Agas were very generally cultivated,
before the present disturbances, by Grecian mortitae
or metayers \
SECTION III.
On Metayers among the Romans.
The causes which introduced metayers into Italy Book i.
were precisely similar to those which ultimately es- g^c^s.
tablished them in Greece. The Romans began by
sharing with their slaves the toils of cultivation. As ^^ytn.
the size of estates enlarged, their owners became the
superintendants of the labor they before assisted.
In this stage the art of agriculture was deeply
studied in Rome, as it had been in a similar stage
in Greece, by a class of men well qualified to carry
it far towards perfection. The works oi fifty Greek
* See Historical Outline of the Greek Revolution published
by Murray, p. 9. " The nominal conditions upon which the
christian peasant of European Turkey labours for the Turkish
proprietor, are not oppressive : they were among the many
established usages of the country adopted by the Ottomans,
and the practice is similar to that which is still very common
in all the poorer countries of Europe. After the deduction of
about a seventh for the imperial land-tax, the landlord receives
half the remainder, or a larger share, according to the proportion
of seed, stock, and instruments of husbandry which he has
supplied."
f2
84 Rents.
Book I. writers on agriculture were known to the Romans \
SecTs!" ^"^ those of several Carthaginians. Of these last,
one, Mago, was marked by the honorable distinction
M°etaycrs. ^^ having his works translated into Latin in obedi-
ence to a formal decree of the Senate'. Roman works
on agriculture were less numerous than the Greek, but
they were the productions of eminent men, beginning
with Cato the censor (qui earn latine loqui primus
instituit. Col.) and including Varro and Virgil.
The great poet was far from being the last among
the cultivators of his day, and has even, in a few
remarkable lines, recommended that alternate hus-
bandry, and substitution of pulse and green crops for
fallows, which is the main basis of the most im-
portant improvements of our own times.
Alternis idem tonsas cessare novales,
Et segnem patiere situ durescere campum ;
Aut ibi flava seres, mutato sidere, farra,
Unde prius laetum siliqua quassante legumen
Aut tenuis fetus viciae, tristisque lupini
Sustuleris fragiles calamos silvamque sonantem.
Geor. Lib. I. !. 71.
As the empire became larger, the size of estates
increased ; and v;hen they were scattered over pro-
vinces which reached from Britain and Spain, to
Asia INIinor and Syria, the superintendance of the
husbandry carried on upon them became burthensome
and inefficient^ and even the task of training
1 Columella, Book I Chap. i. * Ibid. Book I. Chap. i.
■'' Col. Book I. chap. i. Nam qui longinqua, ne dicam trans-
marina rura mercantur, velut haeredibus patrimonio suo, et quod
gravius est, vivi, cedunt servis.
Rents. 85
properly the villici or managers was abandoned, and Book i.
the lands given up in some measure to the discre- ^^'3"*
tion of an inferior class ^ of slaves. The immediate
consequence was such a deficiency in the jiroduce, ^^*g
that some strange and unknown cause was supposed
to be enfeebling the fecundity of the earth itself.
Among even the more eminent Romans, while some
talked of a long continued unwholesomeness in the
seasons, others were inclined to a superstitious belief,
that the world was waxing old, and its powers decaying :
that the exuberant crops reaped by their forefathers
had been the produce of its youthful strength ; and
that the sterility which then afflicted it was a symp-
tom of its decrepitude^. Columella saw more dis-
tinctly the real cause of the falling off; he describes
in a passage which has been often quoted, the mal-
practices of the slaves on those distant farms, which
it was not easy for the proprietor often to visit ; and
though himself an indignant advocate for the more
general practice of agriculture, as the most liberal
and useful of arts, he concludes by recommending
that all such estates should be let. " Ita fit ut et actor
et familia peccent, et ager saepius infametur: quare
talis generis prasdium, si, ut dixi, domini pr^sentia
cariturum est, censeo locandurri^r
A race of tenants then gradually acquired pos-
session of the surface of Italy and the provinces.
They were of various classes, but the coloni partiarii
* Col. Book I. chap. 1. Rem rusticam pessirao cuique ser-
vonim, velut carnifici, noxee dedimus, quam majorum nostrorum
optimus quisque optime tractaverit.
' Col. Book I. chap. i. '° Col. Lib. I. chap. vii.
Roman
Metayers.
86 Rents
Book I. or viedietarii, metayers, seem always to have been
Chap. m. favorites, and the terms on which they cultivated
Sect. 3. ' {
to have appeared the most just and expedient. Pliny,
having tried, it seems, some other form of contract
with his tenantry, and finding it answer ill, announces
in one of his letters his determination to adopt the
metayer system as the best remedy. " The only re-
medy," he says, " I can think of is, not to reserve my
rent in money but in kind (partibus), and to place
some of my servants to overlook the tillage, and
to take care of my share of the produce, as indeed
there is no sort of revenue more just than that,
which is regulated by the soil, the climate, and
the seasons \"
The system thus praised, ultimately prevailed
throughout the provinces of the empire; and in
the western part of Europe, was never wholly
extirpated by the convulsions which accompanied
its downfall. In many instances indeed the first
violence of the barbarians put to flight all regular
industry, and into the wilderness which they created
they were obliged to introduce labor rents and a
race of serfs. The feudal system too, and the nu-
merous body of arriere vassals it gave birth to,
changed the occupation of much of the country. But
still, thick as the darkness was, which covered for
a time the remains of Roman civilization, its effects
were never wholly lost. The language, the customs.
* Plin. Epist. Book IX. 37. It appears from another letter
that the most expensive stock supplied to the tenantry by the
proprietors consisted of the slaves.
Rents. 87
the laws of the provincials still survived, and strug- book i.
ling at last into influence they communicated much ggct. 3.
of their character to that mixed race which has
arisen in western Europe: in different degrees in Metayers.
different countries, but enough in all the principal
kingdoms to distinguish their inhabitants broadly
from the ijiore primitive race to the eastward of the
Rhine.
The class of metayers was probably never any
where wholly destroyed, and as time softened the
character of the conquerors, and introduced some de-
gree of confidence and security into their relations
with the subject cultivators, industry began to return
to its old employments. It was always an object gain-
ed by the landlord, if he could substitute a produce
rent, and a tenant whom he could trust with the
whole task of cultivation, for a rude serf like the
German or Slavonic boor, whose labor he could rely
on, only while he himself enforced and superintended
it. Metayers therefore spread themselves : the do-
main lands of the proprietors fell generally into their
hands, and they re-acquired that general, though not
complete, possession of the agriculture of western
Europe, which we see them in a great measure still
retaining.
SECTION IV.
On Metayer Rents in France. Book I.
The province of Gaul was violently affected sect. 4.
in all its social relations, by the various irruptions
and final predominance of the barbarians. The gra- ivf^tayers.
Fi-ench
Metayers.
88 Rents.
Book I. dual establishment of feudal tenures, and the intro-
*^^'^"' duction of serfs and labor rents, were two of the
most important effects of the change of masters. The
number and species of feudal tenures, were multiplied
to a strange extent in France by the practice of
subinfeudation ; which had been checked in England,
but prevailed widely on the continent. The seignoral
rights, and the rents and services to which they
gave rise, were ranged by the French lawyers under
300 heads, the subdivisions of which they state to
be infinite \
Some of these multiplied rights no doubt were
engrafted on the more simple relation of the serfs
to their landlords ; for as the feudal system became
familiar to the people, the notions and phraseology
to which it gave birth, extended themselves to a
multitude of relations and objects, quite foreign to
the original aim of the system itself. Thus on the
continent annuities in money or corn were granted
as feuds, and occasionally even tfee use of sums of
money", and in England the copyholder, whom we
can distinctly trace to the villein or slave, was ad-
mitted to swear fealty and do homage to his lord much
in the manner of the military tenants ; a practice
which still continues. Thus also, those admitted to
degrees at our Universities do feudal homage to the
Vice-Chancellor. By a similar abuse of feudal forms,
some of the serfs in France no doubt ranked at
' Diet, de Finance, Vol. II. p. 115.
2 Hargreave and Butler's Notes on Coke upon Littleton,
Sect. 300. Note on Tenants in common.
Rents. 89
last amongst the manorial tenantry of the Seigneur, SookF.
and their relation was considered to be a feudal one. secT 4."
But besides the serfs thus gradually assimilated
to vassals, there were other serfs whose state ofMetoyere.
slavery was as distinct and undisguised as that of
the Russian cultivators is now : they existed for some
time in considerable numbers, and continued to exist
in several provinces up to the era of the revolution.
We will say something of these before we proceed
to the metayers. They were found on the estates
of the crown, of lay individuals, and of ecclesiastics,
under the name of mainmortables, which was used
indifferently with that of serf, and appears to have
been considered synonymous with it. They were
attached to the soil, and if they escaped from it,
were restored by the interference of the tribunals to
their owners, to whom their persons and those of their
posterity belonged. They were incapable of trans-
mitting property : if they acquired any, their owners
might seize it at their death : the exercise of this right
was in full vigor, and some startling instances led
Louis XVI. to make a feeble attempt at a partial
emancipation. Proprietors, exercising their droit de
suite, as it was called, had forced the reluctant tri-
bunals of the king to deliver into their hands the
property of deceased citizens who had been long
settled as respectable inhabitants in different towns
of France, some even in Paris itself; but who were
proved to have been originally serfs on the estates
of the claimants. The contrast between the con-
dition of these poor people and that of the rest of
the population, became then too strong to be endured ;
9Q Rents.
BooKi. but though the naturally kind feelings of Louis
Sect. 4. appear to have been roused upon the occasion, he
ventured no farther, than to give liberty to the serfs
aietayers. or maiumortables on his own domains, and to abolish
indirectly the droit de suite, by forbidding his tri-
bunals to seize the person or property of serfs, who
had once become domiciled in free districts. In the
edict published by the unfortunate monarch on this
subject, he declares that this state of slavery exists
in several of his provinces, and includes a great
number of his subjects, and lamenting that he is
not rich enough to ransom them all, he states that
his respect for the rights of property will not allow
him to interfere between them and their owners,
but he expresses a hope that his example and the
love of humanity so peculiar to the French people,
would lead under his reign to the entire emancipation
of all his subjects \
To return however to our immediate object, the
metayer tenantry. In spite of the cultivation by
vassals and serfs, and that at one time doubtless
to a very considerable extent, the metayers had in
their possession before the revolution four-sevenths
of the surface of France". Another one-sixth or one-
seventh was in the possession of capitalists finding
their own stock and paying money-rents'. The
' For this edict, see Diet, des Finances, at the word Main-
morte.
* This is the calculation of Dupres St. Maur, sanctioned by
Turgot. Adam Smith states five-sixths. Turgot, Vol. VI. p. 209.
Smith, Vol. II. p. 92. Edition of 1812. Arthur Young thinks
seven-eighths. Vol. I. p. 403.
' Arthur Young, Vol. I. p. 402.
Rents. ^1
remainder was held by the proprietors, or by serf or Book u
feudal tenantry. ^^^-'f
The terms on which the French metayers held
their farms, differed much from age to ag-e: these French
^o ^ Metayers.
variations do not immediately strike the eye of an
observer, because the nominal rent, and nominal share
of the tenant, have changed but little, and the
metayer still very generally takes that portion of the
produce, viz. the half, from which his original name
of medietarius was derived. But while the metayer
tenant pays nominally the same rent, his own share
of the produce may be diminished in two modes : by
bis being subjected to a greater quantity of the pub-
lic burthens : or by the size of his metairie being
reduced. By this second mode of reduction, I am
not aware that the French metayer suffered much :
fifty acres was not an unusual size for a metairie ;
in poor districts they comprised a much larger
quantity of land*.
By the first mode of reducing his share of the
produce, that is, by the increase of the public burthens
which he had to bear, the metayer suffered to an ex-
tent, fatal both to his own comforts and to the pros-
perity of agriculture ; a circumstance, which had a great
share in converting the peasantry into those reckr
less instruments of mischief, which they proved in
many instances to be, during the revolution.
* Arthur Young however, it is right to mention, came to
a different conclusion. " The division of farms," he says, " and
the population is so great that the misery flowing from it is in
some places extreme." Vol. I. p. 404. he gives some instances:
but it may be questioned whether these were not small proprietors
or feudal tenants.
92 Rents.
Book I. The TaiUe was an imposition which the French
Chap. iii. antiquaries think they can trace to the age of the
' Emperor Augustus^; we know that it was levied by
French the barons on their vassals during the ages of feudal
^*^"* anarchy ; by the sovereign as sovereign, that is be-
yond the limits of his own domains, as early as
1325 : that it became under Charles vii., in 1444,
an annual tax, and continued afterwards to be the
main branch of the revenue of the kingdom*. It
was meant to be levied according to the means of
the contributor, and was extremely defective both
in its principle and mode of imposition ; but even
these defects would not, perhaps, have made it in-
tolerable, had it not been for its gradually increasing
amount, which at last almost absorbed the daily
bread of the peasant. It would have been well for
these poor people had that proved true in their case,
which has lately been promulgated with great con-
fidence as an universal truth, namely, that when once
certain habits of life are established among a popu-
lation, a diminution of their means of subsistence is
followed invariably by a slackened rate of the increase
of their numbers, and a consequent rise of wages,
which restores them to their former position. Theirs
was a different lot. As the command of the French
peasants over the means of existence became less,
their habits altered, but their numbers did not de-
crease ; some one was always found ready to occupy
a metairie, " parceque, (says M. Destutt de Tracy, in
^ Diet, des finances. Discours Preliminaires, Part VII. and
Tom. III. p. 637.
« Diet, des Finanees, Tom. III. p. G3%—Q39-
Rents. 98
describing their misery) il y a toujours des mal- Book i,
Chap, ii
Sect. 4.
heureux qui ne saveut que devenir." *^"^'
The mode in which the taille gradually produced
the degradation of the peasantry, is feelingly, and, ^^e^*^yerg.
no doubt, accurately described by Turgot^ in his
correspondence with the ministers, while intendant
of the Limosin.
After remarking, that while the cultivator really
received half his produce, he had the means of
becoming gradually a small capitalist, and ulti-
mately of providing the stock and paying a money-
rent, he observes, that if the tax had from its origin
been laid on the landholders, this natural progress
of events would not have been deranged, and would
have procured to the owner the enjoyment of his
revenue, without any care on his part : but that
the taille was at first a species of poll-tax, and very
light, from which the -nobles were exempt : that
as the tax increased, it became necessary to levy
it in proportion to the means of the cultivators,
which were calculated according to the extent of
their occupations, a method by which the privilege
of the nobles was eluded : that while the imposition
was moderate, the metayer paid it by retrenching
his comforts ; but that the tax increasing constantly,
the portion of the cultivator was so much diminished,
that at last he was reduced to the most profound
misery. These reflexions, he says, explain how it
came to be possible, that the cultivators should be
^ By Vauban in the Dixame Royal, and in the " Detail de
la France," with more detail and animation ; but these descrip-
tions are less exclusively applicable to the Metayer peasantry
than Turgot's.
Metayers.
94^ Rents.
Book I. pluMged into the excess of misery in which they
Chap. iii. \\^Q-^ existed in the Limosin and Angoumois, and
_' perhaps in other provinces of "petite culture." That
French miscry he declares is such, that on the greater part
of the domains, the cultivators had not, after paying
their taxes, more than from 25 to 30 livres to spend
annually for each person, (not in money, but reckon-
ing the value of all that they consumed in kind) ;
often they had less, and when they could subsist
no longer, the proprietor was obliged to contribute
to their maintenance. Some proprietors, he adds,
had been at last forced to perceive, that their pre-
tended exemption had been much more mischievous
than useful to them ; and that an imposition which
had entirely ruined their cultivators, had fallen back
wholly on themselves. But the illusions of self-
interest ill understood, supported by vanity, had
long maintained their ground, and were only dis-
sipated when things were carried to such an excess,
that the proprietors would have found no one to cul-
tivate their lands, if they had not consented to con-
tribute with their metayers to the payment of a part
of the imposition. That custom had begun to intro-
duce itself into some parts of the Limosin, but had
not extended itself much : the proprietor yielded to
such an arrangement only, when he could find no
metayer without it ; and even in that case the me-
tayer was always reduced to what was strictly ne-
cessary^ to prevent his dying from hunger.
' Ainsi, meme dans ce cas-la, le metayer est toujours
reduit a ce qu'il faut precisement pour ne pas mourir de
faim. Turgot, Tom. IV. p. 277- Memoire presented to the
Council, CEuvres de Turgot, Tom. IV. p. 271, 272, 274, 275.
Rents. 95
The tax evidently did not begin to move from ^°^^ i-
the shoulders of the laborer to those of the employer, secf. 4"
till the first had been gradually reduced to the mini-
mum of subsistence, and then only moved to such MeJayws.
an extent as was necessary to preserve to him that
minimum.
The revolution converted many of these metayers
into small proprietors, but they still abound in
France ; and their condition seems to have altered
for the better, less than might have been expected
from the changes which have taken place in the
system of taxation. Mr. Destutt de Tracy, a member
of the Institute, and peer of France under the Em-
peror, who states himself to have been for 40 years
proprietor of a domain farmed by metayers, gives
a wretched account of their condition, and states
that he is acquainted with metairies, which have
never, in the memory of man, supplied the food of
the metayers from their own half of the produce.
As his description is the most authentic account of
this tenancy as it exists at present in France, I
subjoin it^.
" lis ferment ce que Ton appelle communement
des domaines ou des metairies, et ils y attachent
frequemment autant et plus de terres qu'il n'y en a
dans les grandes fermes, surtout si Ton ne dedaigne
pas de mettre en ligne de compte les terres vagues,
qui ordinairement ne sont pas rares dans ces pays, et
qui ne sont pas tout-a-fait sans utilite, puisqu' on
s'en sert pour le pacage, ou meme pour y faire de
2 Destutt de Tracy Traite D'Economie Politique, p. II6.
96 Re7its.
Book T. temps en temps quelques emblavures afin de laisser
Sect. 4. reposer les champs plus habituellement cultives.
*^^ ^, ^ ^j. ^, ^, Uf
^I* ^f\ 7JT /|^ ^y^ *\* ^T*
French .,. ■, i-i -i-a
Metayers. 1^6 proprietairc est done reduit a les garnir lui-meme
de bestiaux, d' utensiles, et de tout ce qui est ne-
cessaire a I'exploitation, et k y ^tablir une famille
de paysans, qui n' ont que leur bras, et avec lesquels
il convient ordinairement, au lieu de leur donner
des gages, de leur abandonner la moitie du produit,
pour le salaire de leurs peines. C'est de la qu'ils
sont appeles metayers, travailleurs k moiti^. Si
la terre est trop mauvaise, cette moitie des pro-
duits est manifestement insufRsante pour faire vivre,
meme miserablement, le nombre d'hommes neces-
saire pour la travailler ; ils s'endettent bientot, et
on est oblige de les renvoyer. Cependant on en
trouve toujours pour les rem placer, parce qu'il
y a toujours des malheureux qui ne savent que
devenir. Ceux-la meme vont aiileurs, ou ils ont
souvent le meme sort. Je connais de ces metairies,
qui de memoire d'homme n'ont jamais nourri leurs
laboreurs au moyen de leur moitie de fruits."
It appears by an article in the Foreign Quarterly,
published while these pages were in the press, that
in spite of the multiplication of small proprietors
since the revolution, metayers are supposed still
to cultivate one-half of France. Their actual con-
dition is little improved, it appears, by the change
which has taken place in the system of taxation,
and their sufferings are aggravated by the spread
of a class of middle -men (always existing to
some extent) who without changing tlie terms on
Rents. 97
which the actual cultivator holds the soil, pays ^"^^ \
a money-rent to the proprietor, and grinds and s^t.T
oppresses the tenant to make his bargain profit-
able. The condition of the French metayers has M^jtn.
been treated of with some fulness. This will enable
us to review more rapidly the same class of tenantry
existing in other countries, and differing from the
French only in local peculiarities.
SECTION V.
On Metayer Rents in Italy.
The decline of the power of the Roman and Boon i.
Byzantine Emperors in Italy was gradual and slow ; ^l 5"'
the shade of her great name seemed to suspend a
shield for a time before the precincts of the ancient Jj^^ers.
capital. Both the language and the history of the
Italians indicate, that the alterations in the habits
and in the mechanism of society, produced in the
original seats of the empire by the final change
of masters and intermixture of races, were much
less violent and. general than those which took
place in the distant provinces. From many dis-
tricts of Italy it is probable that the coloni medie-
tarii never disappeared, and that the peasants who
now cultivate the soil have succeeded to them in
an unbroken line. The large grazing farms of Lom-
bardy, the tracts of the Campagna, the maremnae
which occur on the coast, are occupied by capitalists;
G
98 Rents.
Book I. for wherever large herds of cattle are to be main-
g^^' ^"" tained, neither the peasant nor the landlords are able
to supply them. But in spite of these, and per-
Metayers. haps Other exceptions, Italy, from the Alps to
Calabria, is still covered with metayers ^ The me-
tairies of Italy arc less than those of PVance. Their
extent will every where be governed by what the
landlord supposes to be his interest : if it is an
object with him that his estates should not have
fewer hands than are equal to its complete cultiva-
tion, so it is an object with him, that it should not
have more. The number of acres which a metayer
and his family can manage, must depend much on the
course of crops and mode of tillage. In France the
system of cropping, once universal in Northern
Europe, still prevails extensively ; that is, corn crops
while the land can bear them, and then fallows, or leys
of some years standing, with some waste ground for
pasture. On such a plan a family require and can
manage a considerable tract. In Italy the rotation
of crops practised by the Romans is still carried
on ; the legumina recommended by Virgil are exten-
sively cultivated, and the cattle are often fed from
the produce of the arable ground. On such a system,
a much smaller quantity of land will employ and
maintain a family. Metayers are always found ready
to accept a subdivision. For reasons we shall have
to explain presently, those motives to a voluntary
forbearance from early marriages which affect the
higher classes in all countries, and all classes in
' That is, where the lands are let : small proprietors are
not xincommon.
Rents. 99
some countries have rarely much influence on a pea- Book r.
santry receiving the wages of their lahor in the §5*^5"
shape of raw produce raised hy themselves. Such
are metayers : their multiplication as, we have seen m*^^"
in the case of France, usually goes on till they are
stopped by the smallness of their maintenance, or, as
more often happens, by the policy of the proprietors
refusing to subdivide lands, already supplied with
labor beyond the point they deem most advanta-
geous to themselves'^. The metayer farms in dif-
ferent parts of Italy are of different sizes ; those of
Tuscany include about ten acres. But in Naples
they do not exceed five, and the tenants there pay
two-thirds of the produce as rents. Their climate
and soil enable them to do this: the first permits
them to dispense with many things which are strictly
necessaries elsewhere, while the earth with bounteous
fertility produces eight crops in five years, in fields
shaded at the same time by a profitable forest of
fruit trees and vines. Still, making ample allow-
ance for these advantages, one-third of the produce
of five acres must yield a miserable subsistence to
a peasant, subject all the while to the exactions of
a needy government, and of an aristocracy armed
with all sorts of mischievous powers and privileges,
and extremely inclined to abuse them. The Tuscan
^ There are, however, parts of Tuscany where it is the
custom for the eldest son only to marry, but no restraints of
this kind have prevented the Italian metayers, generally, from
increasing till their numbers became fully equal to the de-
mands of the pvoprietors, and in many cases really burthensome
to agriculture.
(' o
100 Rents.
Book I. mctayers are considered to be best off, and near
'se^'' 5" I^'lorence have a considerable appearance of ease,
which is attributed partly to the manufacture of
]^''^ straw hats, an employment very general among
them. But at a distance from the town, their cir-
cumstances are wretched ; their food coarse, bad,
and scanty ; and their penury such as keeps them
in a state of perpetual debt to the landlords for
food or assistance of different kinds \
Mr. Coxe, who some years since visited the Valte-
line, and Mr. Gilly, who more lately was among the
Vaudois, give a miserable account of the poverty of
the metayers. In the provinces of Spain in which
they most abound, they are said to be extremely
poor. The cultivation of the Canary Islands is in
their hands.
In Afghaunisthaun, a race of tenants is found
called Buzgurs^ who seem to differ in no respect
from the metayers of Western Europe. This is a sin-
gular instance in Asia, where this tenancy, although
sometimes partially engrafted on Ryot rents, is per-
haps in no other spot to be found existing in its
pure form. But Afghaunisthaun is a strange land,
in which, from the peculiarities of its geographical
and political condition, fragments of almost all the
civil institutions known in the rest of the world
continue to co-exist in a state of confusion approach-
ing to anarchy.
* Arthur Young's Travels in France and Italy. Appendix.
These volumes contain much detailed information on the situa-
tion of the metayers in Lombardy and Tuscany.
^ Eiphinston's Caubul. Vol. I. p. 471-
Rents. 101
SECTION VI.
Summary of Metayer Rents.
Upon comparing the metayer with the serf, it Book i.
is obvious that he has many advantages: his being sect*. c"
entrusted with the whole care of the cultivation is
a circumstance which not only indicates his supe- *'^**y^"-
rior estimation in society, but brings with it sub-
stantial improvements in his condition : v/e have
noticed that the forced labor of the serf supposes
some power of summary coercion in the master,
without which, cultivation could hardly go on. But
the metayer is freed from the galling superintend-
ance of the proprietor, and the terms of their con-
nection do not make such a summary power necessary.
That, of the metayers, many were once slaves there
can be little doubt ; they are, and have been for
some ages generally, I believe universally, free-
men ; and the sovereigns of the different countries
in which they exist, have been able in most cases
so far to extend the power of the royal tribunals,
as effectually to secure their persons and effects.
Another advantage of the metayer, which in
practice, it is to be feared, is less than might be
hoped, is this ; that, as the landlord's rent depends
upon the amount of the produce, he has an obvious
interest in preventing the energy or the means of the
tenant from being lessened by oppression. A half
starved metayer must needs be a bad agent in a
cultivation, on the efficiency of which the propri-
etor's revenue depends, and the losses of which he
Metayers.
102 Rents.
Book I. niust share. But what Turgot calls " the illusions
Secu e" ^^ self-interest ill understood," or in plain terms,
perhaps, the covetousness and ignorance of the pro-
prietors, have prevented the tenant from reaping
all the benefit this consideration might have been
expected to secure to him. While the taille in
France, for instance, could be extracted from the
tenant, we have seen that he was made to bear it,
though it kept him on the verge of starvation ; and
in other countries, either the too great subdivision
of the soil, the increase of the landlord's proportion
of the produce, or the saddling the tenant with
burthensome conditions as to the taxes, have left
him in a state of great and helpless depression.
Still the common interest he has with the landlord
in the success of his industry is never wholly without
its effects. When reduced to extremities, the
tenant has a patron to apply to, who cannot for his
own sake let him perish, or even suffer beyond
a certain point^ ; and in calamitous seasons, ad-
vances of food and other necessaries by the landlords
are almost universal.
But if the relation between the metayer and
the proprietor has some advantages when compared
with that between the serf tenant paying labor
rents and his lord : it has also some very serious in-
conveniences peculiar to itself. The divided interest
which exists in the produce of cultivation, mars
almost every attempt at improvement. The tenant
is unwilling to listen to the suggestions of the
' Turgot. Destutt Tracy. Arthur Young.
Rents. 103
landlord, the landlord reluctant to entrust additional ^oor i.
means in the hands of a prejudiced, and usually j^*^g''
very ignorant tenant- The tenant's dread of inno-
vation IS natural; he merely exists upon a system
of cultivation familiar to him : the failure of an
experiment might leave him to starve. This dread,
however, makes it almost impossible to introduce
improvements into the practice of the metayers.
Arthur Young witnessed many attempts made by
amateur agriculturists on their own estates ; and
concludes his account of them by declaring, that
with metayer tenants, the common system of the
country must be adhered to, be it good or bad^.
While the tenant is frightened at a change of
system, the landlord hangs back, with a hardly
less mischievous reluctance, from the advances ne-
cessary to carry on efficiently any system what-
ever. When stock is to be advanced by one party,
and used by another for their common benefit,
some waste and carelessness in the receiving party,
great jealousy and reluctance in the contributing
party, follow naturally. The proprietors, (says
Turgot,) who only advance stock because they
cannot avoid it, and who are themselves not rich,
confine their advances to what is most strictly ne-
cessary; accordingly, there is no comparison to be
made between the stock advanced by a proprietor
for the cultivation of his metairies, and that used
by farmers in districts cultivated by capitalists \
We know, however, from other authority, that the
2 Arthur Young's Travels in France.
'' CEuvres de Turgot, Tom. IV. p. 2(^7«
104 Rents.
Book I. capital to which that of the metayers was thus
Se^t,'(; decidedly inferior, was itself extremely scanty ^
Where the proprietors are needy, careless, or
etayere. ^|jg^jj|.^ ^\^q ^^gg bccomes of coursc much worse.
" In bad years, (Turgot remarks) the proprietor is
obliged to feed the metayers, for fear of losing all
he has advanced. This mode of management re-
quires on the part of the proprietor continual atten-
tion, and an habitual residence : accordingly, if it is
seen that the affairs of a proprietor are in the
smallest degree deranged, or if he is obliged from
any cause to absent himself, his metairies cease to
produce him any thing. The estates of widows and
minors usually relapse into wasted" When we
remember the number of proprietors who were ne-
cessarily absent from military duties or other causes,
and add them to the widows, and minors, and per-
sons whose affairs were deranged, the list of estates
either very badly cultivated, or not cultivated at
all, will appear formidable indeed, and we are pre-
pared to hear without surprise "of the exhausted
state of the province" and the "abandonment of
many metairie estates for want of cattle, and the
inability of the proprietors to provide stock ^."
The causes which, under the eyes of Turgot,
produced these effects in the Limosin, must act
more or less in all the metayer countries of Europe,
and must produce much of the poverty to be observed
in them.
» Arthur Young. * Turgot, Tom. VI. p. 203, 204.
^ Ibid. Tom. IV. p. 302.
Rents. 105
Metayer rents may increase, it is clear, from two ^^^^ ^;
causes, from an increase of the whole produce effected ^^^ g"'
by the greater skill or industry of the tenant, or
from an increase of the landlord's proportion of the ^^"*y^"-
produce, the amount of the produce itself remain-
ing the same. When rent increases, and the pro-
duce remains stationary, the country at large gains
nothing by the increase ; its means of paying taxes,
of supporting fleets and armies, are just what they
were before : there has been a transfer of wealth,
but no increase of it; but when metayer rents in-
crease, because the produce has become larger, then
the country itself is richer to that extent ; its power
of paying taxes, of supporting fleets and armies
has been increased ; there has been an increase of
wealth, not a mere transfer from one hand to an-
other of what before existed. Such an increase
of rents indicates also another increase of wealth
as extensive, and more beneficial, which is found
in the augmentation of the revenues of the metayers
themselves, whose half the produce is augmented
to precisely the same extent as the landlord's.
The existence of rents upon the metayer system,
is in no degree dependent upon the existence of
different qualities of soil or of different returns to
the stock and labor employed. The landlords of
any country who, with small quantities of stock,
have quantities of land, sufficient to enable a body
of peasant laborers to maintain themselves, would
continue to derive a revenue as landowners from
sharing in the produce of the industry of those
laborers, though all the lands in the country were
perfectly equal in quality.
106 Rents.
Book I. Jq metayer countries the wages of the main
^slct e" ^^^y ^^ *^^ people depend upon the rent they
pay. The quantity of produce being determined
Metayers, y^^ ^^ie fertility of the soil, the extent of the me-
tairie, and the skill, industry, and efficiency of the
metayer, then the division of that produce, on
which division his wages depend, is determined by
his contract with the landlord. In like manner the
amount of rent in such countries is determined by
the amount of wages. The whole amount of produce
being decided as before, the landlord's share, or the
rent, depends upon the contract he makes with the
laborer, that is, upon the amount deducted as wages.
Of the three large classes of peasant rents, metayer
rents prevail the least extensively. They spread over
a portion of the cultivated surface of the earth
considerably less than those in which labor rents or
ryot rents predominate. But they occupy countries
which have long been the seats of nations eminent in
the foremost ranks of civilized people, and which are
likely for many ages to be among the most distinguished
depositaries of the knowledge and the arts of mankind.
These too are agricultural nations : that is, by far
the greater part of their productive population is
employed in agriculture. The extent of their wealth
must be mainly dependent, therefore, on the success
of their agriculture, and the success of their agri-
culture will be determined in a great degree by the
nature of the conditions under which the land is
occupied, and by the character of their tenantry.
Not only the wealth of a nation, but the compo-
sition of society, the extent and the respective in-
fluence of the different classes of which it consists,
Rents. 107
are powerfully affected by the efficiency of agriculture. Book i.
The extent of the classes maintained in non-agricul- sect. e.
tural employments throughout the world, must be
determined by the quantity of food which the culti- ^'^'^y"*-
vators produce beyond what is necessary for their
own maintenance. The agriculturists of England for
instance produce food sufficient to maintain them-
selves, and double their own numbers. Now the
existence of this large non-agricultural population,
the wealth and influence of its employers, and of
those persons who traffic in the produce of its
industry, affigct in a very striking manner the
actual elements of political power among the Eng-
lish, their practical constitution, and their national
character and habits. To the absence of such a body
of non-agriculturists and of the wealth and influence
which accompany their existence, we may trace many
of the political phenomena to be observed among our
continental neighbours. If the agriculture of those
neighbours should ever become so efficient, as to
enable them to maintain a non-agricultural popu-
lation, at all proportionable to our own, they may
perhaps approximate to a social and political or-
ganization similar to that seen here. At all events
they will have the means of doing so. I am giving,
it will be remembered, no opinion on the desirable-
ness of such an approximation, but there can be
no question as to the striking effects the change
must produce on their habits and institutions, and
on the amount of their national strength and ex-
ternal influence.
That no very marked change in the efficiency
of agriculture, and in the relative numbers of
108 Rents,
Book I. agricultural and non-agricultural population will
aJue!^ take place in any nation, while the metayer system
remains in full force, is what we are entitled to
Metayers, ^ssume, from the view we have already taken of
the inherent faults and of the past effects of that
system. The actual prevalence of metayer rents
therefore, their modifications, their gradual progress
in some cases towards different forms of holding, in
others, the sturdy resistance the system offers to
the assaults of time and even to the wishes and
the efforts of those, who would willingly rid them-
selves of it ; these are all circumstances to he studied
carefully by those who would discern the causes
of the actual state of some of the most interesting
countries in Europe, or speculate upon the progress
of future changes either in their political and
social institutions, or in their relative strength
and power as nations.
To these claims to an attentive examination
we add another of not less importance, which has
been already incidentally mentioned, namely, the
strict connection which metayer rents have (in com-
mon with the other systems of peasant rents) with
the wages of by far the larger portion of the
industrious population of countries in which they
prevail. This connection brings their effects into
close contact with the comforts, the character and
condition of an important division of the great
family of mankind, and is alone sufficient to secure
to them, in all their details and variations, the
anxious attention of the statesman and practical
philanthropist.
109
CHAP. IV. SECT. I.
On Ryot Rents.
Ryot Rents are, with a few exceptions, pecu- BookI.
liar to Asia\ They are produce rents paid by g^^.^ j^'
a laborer, raising his own wages from the soil, to ^___-
the sovereign as its proprietor. They are usually ^^
accompanied by a precarious right on the part of the
tenant, to remain the occupant of his allotment of
land, while he pays the rent demanded from him.
These rents originate in the rights of the sovereign,
as sole proprietor of the soil of his dominions.
Such rights, we have seen, have been acknowledged
at some period by most nations. In Europe they
have disappeared or become nominal; but the Asiatic
sovereigns continue to be, as they have been for
a long series of ages, the direct landlords of the
peasant tenants, who maintain themselves on the
soil of their dominions. Indications present them-
selves occasionally, which would lead us to conclude
that in portions of that quarter of the globe, a state
of things once existed, under which the rights to
the land must have been in a different state from
that in which we see them: but it was in an an-
tiquity so remote, as to baffle all attempts at investi-
gation. Within the period of historical memory.
* They have been introduced by Asiatics into Turkey in
Europe. They exist in Egypt; and may perhaps hereafter be
traced in Africa.
110 Rents.
Book I. all the great empires of Asia have heen overrun by
Sxci \ foreigners; and on their rights as conquerors the
claim of the present sovereigns to the soil rests. China,
^°J^ India, Persia, and Asiatic Turkey, all placed at the
outward edge of the great basin of central Asia,
have been subdued in their turn by irruptions of
its tribes, some of them more than once. China
seems even at this moment hardly escaping from
the danger of another subjugation. Wherever these
Scythian invaders have settled, they have established
a despotic form of government, to which they have
readily submitted themselves, while they were oblig-
ing the inhabitants of the conquered countries to
submit to it.
The uniformity of the political system adopted
by them, is a striking peculiarity ; and becomes
more striking, when seen in contrast with the free
constitutions established by the Germanic hordes,
which, in the western division of the old world, took
possession of countries more wealthy and civilized
than their own. It has been supposed, that the
difference may be traced to the previous habits of
the Tartars as pastoral tribes. But the Germans
too consisted of pastoral tribes, and the difference
of their institutions must be sought in some other
cause than this. It may be found perhaps, in a great
measure, in the different character of their original
seats. Amidst the fastnesses and morasses of his
native woods, the German, when not actually at
war, was in tolerable security ; his habits of military
obedience, we know, relaxed, and he enjoyed that
rude and indolent freedom, which the warlike bar-
barian never relinquished but from necessity- Some
Rents. Ill
of the tribes of the AfFghans exhibit remarkable Book i.
instances of the different degrees of submission to yg^j'j^'
authority, produced among pastoral nations under
the prevalence of the different feelings of security, ^"'^
or of peril. They are only slowly and partially
abandoning migratory habits: during part of the
year they are stationary, in a country in which
they feel secure; in another part of the year they
move to distant pastures. While safe and tranquil,
their institutions are as free as those of the ancient
Germans, and in many points of detail resemble them
with remarkable closeness. When they begin to move,
and the approach of danger and the necessity of
united exertion begin to be felt, they pass at once
to a despotic form of government: a Khan, whose
authority, while they are stationary and safe, is
disclaimed, is at once invested with supreme power;
and so helpless do they feel without him, that
when from private views he has wished to remain
at court, or employ himself elsewhere, he has been
recalled by their clamor, to receive their submis-
sion, and to put himself at their head'. But the
' Elphinstone's Caubul, Vol. II. p. 215. When the people
are collected into camps, they are governed by their own
Mooshirs, without any reference to the Khaun, and when they
are scattered over the country, they subsist without any govern-
ment at all : but when a march is contemplated, they imme-
diately submit to the Khaun, and where they have to pass
an enemy's country, he is appointed head of the Chelwashtees,
assumes an absolute authority, and becomes an object of respect
and anxiety to all the tribe. A proof of the importance of the
Khaun during a march, is shewn by the conduct of the Nausser
at one time, Avhen Junus Khan, their present chief, refused
to
112 Rents.
Book I.
Chap. iv.
Tartars of central Asia inhabit vast plains, traversed
Sect. 1. in every direction by mounted enemies. The task
of guarding their property and lives, is a constant
Rents. campaign; and their habits of military submission
have no intervals of relaxation : they are born, and
they die in them. It is possible that when they
became masters of the fair empires of exterior Asia,
they found already established, in some instances,
the right of the sovereign to the soil ; not as a
remote or nominal superior, but as the actual and
direct proprietor. Such a right may have been a relic
of former conquests, or in some remoter instances,
the growth of circumstances, similar to those which
induced the natives of Africa, Peru, or New Zea-
land to acknowledge, on applying themselves to
agriculture, the right of their sovereigns to dispose
of the territory which the nation occupied. How-
ever this may be, it is certain that the Tartars
have every where either adopted or established
a political system, which unites so readily with
their national habits of submission in the people,
and absolute power in the chiefs : and their conquests
have either introduced or re-established it, from the
Black Sea to the Pacific, from Pekin to the Ner-
budda. Throughout agricultural Asia, (with the
to accompany them in one of their migrations. He was anxious
to remain in Damaun with 200 or 300 of his relations, to assist
Surwur Khaun against the Vizeerees ; but his resolution occa-
sioned great distress in the tribe, who declared it was impossible
to march without their Khaun. So earnest were their repre-
sentations, that Junus was at last compelled to abandon his
former design, and to accompany them on their march to
Khorassaun.
Rents. 113
exception of Russia) the same system prevails. There Boo* i-
are neither capital nor capitalists able to produce, *^''^'
Sect. 1.
from stores already accumulated, the maintenance
of the bulk of the people. The peasant must have 5^°^
land to till or must starve. The body of the nation
is therefore in every case dependent upon the great
sovereign proprietor for the means of obtaining
food. Of the remainder of the people, the most
important part is, if possible, more dependent : they
live in the character of soldiers or civilians, on
a portion of the revenue collected from the peasants,
assigned to them by the bounty of their chief: inter-
mediate and independent classes there are none ; and
great and little are literally what they describe them-
selves to be, the slaves of that master on whose pleasure
the means of their subsistence wholly depend. The
experience of many long tenturies of monotonous
oppression has sufficiently proved the tendency of
such a state of things, once established, to perpetuate
the despotism it creates.
Although a similar system prevails in all the
great empires of Asia, it presents itself with dis-
tinct modifications in each; arising from differences
in the climate, soil, and even government ; for
despotism itself has its varieties. Of these modifica-
tions a very slight sketch must suffice here.
SECTION II. Book I.
Chap. iv.
On Ryot Rents in India. sect. 2.
It seems probable, that the ancient Egyptians, 7
and the Indian worshippers of the Brahminical idols Ryots.
H
114 Rents.
Book I. had a common origin, but whence they came ; or
^^2. ^^ ^^^^ s^^*® ^^ things their peculiar institutions
originated, can only be dimly conjectured. In India,
Ry^ ^y®^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ subsisted since the invasion of the
people whom the Brahmins led, or accompanied;
perhaps longer. The sacred books of the Hindoos
found the claims of the sovereigns to the land on
the rights of conquest.
" By conquest, the earth became the property of
the holy Parasa Rama ; by gift the property of the
Sage Casyapa ; and was committed by him to Csha-
triyas (the military cast) for the sake of protection,
because of their protective property ; successively held
by powerful conquerors, and not by subjects cultiva-
ting the soil. But annual property is acquired by
subjects, on payment of annual revenue, and the king
cannot lawfully give, sell, or dispose of the land to
another for that year. But if the agreement be in
this form, " you shall enjoy it for years," for so many
years as the property is granted, during so many
years the king should never give, sell, or dispose of
it to another, yet if the subject pay not the revenue,
the grant being conditional, is annulled by the breach
of the condition. But if no special agreement be
made, and another person desirous of obtaining the
land, stipulate a greater revenue, it may be granted
to him on his application \"
With the spirit and letter of this often quoted
law, the practice of the various sovereigns of India,
native and foreign, has very accurately corresponded.
' Colebroke's Dig. of Hindoo Law, Vol. I. p. 460.
Rents. 115
Those subordinate rights of the people to temporary ^°°* 'j
possession which have grown up in peaceful times, Sect. 2.
have ever remained precarious and imperfect : but *"
the right of the ruler is the right of the strongest ; Ryots.
and when either intestine wars or foreign invasion
have brought a new master to a district, his sword
has restored the sovereign's claim in all its primitive
clearness.
The proportion of the produce taken by the
sovereign, has on some ground or other perpetually
varied; that is, when he has pretended to confine
himself to any definite proportion at all. The laws
seem to fix it at one-sixth, but in practice, this law
or rule has been utterly disregarded. Strabo men-
tions, that in his time, €(Xtiv ») y^copa Bao-tXt/c>) iraca,
fiicrOov 6 avTr]v cttI Terdprai^ epya^ovrat twv KapirwVf
where by straining the Greek a little either way,
the rent may appear to have been one-fourth or
three-fourths of the produce. The Mogul con-
querors exacted their rents in proportions, which
varied considerably with the quality of the land,
more particularly with its command of water. But
no definite rate of rent has ever prevailed long in
practice.
Under the Hindoo governments, there had been
a disposition to allow many subordinate claims to
the possession of the soil, and to offices connected
with the collection of the revenue, to become here-
ditary. Of the offices, the most important was that
of the Zemindars. These were entrusted with the
collection of the revenue in districts of different
sizes, were entitled to a tenth of its amount, had
h2
116 Rents.
Book I. sometimes lands assigned to them, and were endowed
Sect. 2. ^^^^ ^®^y considerable authority. They were much
• in the habit of making advances of seed and stock
R^t^ to assist the cultivator, and of stipulating for re-
payment in the shape of produce. When the son
had been allowed to succeed the father for some
generations in such an office, the ties and interests
which connected him with the people under him
were so many and strong, that the displacing a
Zemindar, unless for gross misconduct or for failure
in payment of the sovereign's rent, was thought
by himself and the ryots, to be an act of tyrannical
oppression. The ryots very generally occupied their
lands in common, and were collected into villages
under officers of their own, who distributed to the
cultivators and tradesmen their respective shares of
the produce. The village offices and various trades
became hereditary. The ryot too himself, the actual
cultivator, was yet less likely than the superior
officers to be disturbed in the possession of his
lands. Provided the sovereign's share of the produce
was paid, he had no interest in disturbing the
humble agents of production, and a very great
interest in retaining them. From similar reasons,
a claim to mortgage or sell his possessory interest,
was suffered to establish itself.
But then all these subordinate interests were
only respected in peaceful times, and under moderate
governors; and these were rare in India. It has
been hitherto the misfortune of that country, to
see a rapid succession of short lived empires: the
convulsions amidst which they were established, have
Rents. 117
hardly subsided, before the people have begun to Book i.
be harassed by the consequences of their weakness s^c^^.'
and decay. While any really efficient general go-
vernment has existed, it has been the obvious interest, Jj'y^J^
and usually the aim of the chiefs to act upon some
definite system ; to put some limit to their own
exactions; to protect the ryots, and foster cultiva-
tion by giving reasonable security to all the interests
concerned in it. The Mogul emperors acted in
this spirit, while exercising a power over the soil,
which had no real bounds, but those which they
prescribed to themselves. But as the empire grew
feeble, and the subordinate chieftains, Mahometan,
or Hindoo, began to exercise an uncontrolled power
in their districts, their rapacity and violence seem
usually to have been wholly unchecked by policy
or principle. There was at once an end to all system,
moderation, or protection; ruinous rents, arbitrarily
imposed, were collected in frequent military circuits,
at the spear's point ; and the resistance often at-
tempted in despair, was unsparingly punished by
fire and slaughter.
Scenes like these, in the ancient history of India,
have been frequently renewed, and succeeded rapidly
short intervals of repose. They were of course dis-
astrous. Half the rich territory of that country has
never been cultivated, though swarming with a
population to whom the permission to make it fruit-
ful in moderate security, would have been happiness;
and nothing can well exceed the ordinary poverty
of the ryots, and the inefficiency of their means of
cultivation.
118 Rents.
Book I. The English, when they became the repr«senta-
secl 2.^ tives of the Mogul emperor in Bengal, began by
pushing to an extreme their rights as proprietors of
Ryo?^ ^^^ s^^l ' ^^^ neglected the subordinate claims of the
Zemindars and ryots, in a manner which was felt
to be oppressive and tyrannical, although not perhaps
in strictness illegal. A great reaction has taken
place in their views and feelings ; perceiving the
necessity of restoring confidence to the cultivators,
and anxious to shake off the imputation of injustice
and tyranny, they showed themselves quite willing
to part with their character of owners of the soil,
and to retain simply that of its sovereign. An agree-
ment was in consequence entered into, by which
the Zemindars assumed a character, which certainly
never before belonged to them, that of the direct
landlords of those ryots, between whom and the
supreme government they had before been only
agents ; agents, however, possessed of many imperfect
but prescriptive rights to an hereditary interest in
their office. The government, instead of exacting
rents, was content to receive a fixed and permanent
tax; for which the new landlords were to be re-
sponsible.
There can be no doubt of the fair and even bene-
volent spirit, in which this arrangement was made.
It seems however to be now generally admitted, that
the claims of the Zemindars were overrated, and that
if something less had been done for them, and some-
thing more for the security and independence of the
ryots, the settlement, without being less just or gene-
rous, would have been much more expedient.
Rents. 119
SECTION III.
On Ryot Rents in Persia.
Of all the despotic governments of the east, ^°°^ ^'
that of Persia is perhaps the most greedy, and sect. 3.
the most wantonly unprincipled; yet the peculiar
soil of that country has introduced some valuable Ry"!^
modifications of the general Asiatic system of ryot
rents, and forced the government, unscrupulous as
it is, to treat the various interests in the land
subordinate to those of the crown, with considerable
forbearance.
One of the most remarkable geological features
of the old world, is that great tract of sandy desert,
which extends across its whole breadth, and imposes
a peculiar character on the tribes which roam over
its surface, or inhabit its borders. It forms the
shores of the Atlantic on the western coast of
Africa, and constitutes the Zahara or great sandy
desert, which has contributed to conceal so long
the central regions of that quarter of the globe
from European curiosity. It forms next the sur-
face of Egypt with the exception of the valley of
the Nile ; stretches across the Arabian wastes, to
Syria, Persia, and upper India; and turning from
Persia northwards, threads between Mushed and
Herat^ the Elburz and Parapomisan mountains,
parts of the Caucasian or Himalayan chain ; runs
north-eastward through Tartary, and rounding the
northern extremity of China, sinks finally, it is
^ For the course of these sands on the confines of Persia
and Tartary, see Frazer's Khorassan, p. 253.
120 Rents.
Book I. supposed, beneath the waves of the Pacific. The
2*^3"* greater part of the territories of Persia either consist
of this desert, or border on it ; and partake so much
Persian ^f j^-g parched and sterile character, that the eye
at a short distance can hardly trace the boundary\
This soil can be made fruitful only by irrigation.
But water, s^ays Frazer, is the most scanty boon of
nature in Persia ; its rivers are small and few, and
rivulets, by no means common, can only be applied
to a very limited quantity of cultivation. In the
best districts, the small proportion of cultivated land
resembles an Oasis in the desert, serving by contrast
to make all around it more dreary'.
As the natural springs and streams are insufficient
to support the cultivation by which the people must
exist, the Persians establish with great labor and
expense artificial sources, called cannauts. They sink
on the sides of hills long chains of wells, of different
depths, and communicating by a channel, which con-
ducts to the lowest the water collected in them :
thence the stream is distributed over the fields which
it is to fertilize. These works, always costly and
important, are of various sizes ; the chain of wells
is said to be occasionally thirty-six miles in length,
and a cannaut is spoken of in Chorassan, into which
a horseman may ride with his lance upon his shoulder';
^ Frazer. ' Frazer, p. l63.
3 This perhaps is a fable, but the cannauts must sometimes
discharge very considerable bodies of water. Mr. Frazer, who
first met with them at Kauzeroon, says: The cannauts or
subterranean canals have frequently been described, and con-
stitute almost the only species of improvement requiring outlay,
still
Rents 121
more ordinarily, the channels are small, and the Book r.
chain of wells does not exceed two miles in length. g^^udJ'
Whenever, by these or other means, water is brought
to the surface, scenes of oriental vegetation spring Ry"[JI*
up rapidly and luxuriantly. If from war, or oppres-
sion, or accident, or time, the works of man are
destroyed or neglected, the scene of fertility vanishes,
and the desert resumes its domain. The plain of
Yezid-Khaust in the route from Shiraz to Teheran,
was once celebrated for its beauty and fertility:
Mr. Frazer passed over it in 1821, and thus describes
it. " The plain of Yezid-Khaust, which extends in
the line of our route all the way to Komaishah, pre-
sented, towards the latter place, a truly lamentable
picture of the general decline of prosperity in Persia.
Ruins of large villages thickly scattered about, vdth
the skeleton-like walls of caravanserais and gardens,
all telling of better times, stood like memento moris
to kingdoms and governments; and the whole plain
still carried on in Persia: because the property thus acquired
is protected, and the profit considerable, and not very remote:
indeed^ they are most commonly constructed by persons in
authority, who dispose of the water thus brought to the surface
at very high rates. Several new ones have been lately made
in the Kauzeroon valley, and some notion may be formed of
the value of such property, when it is imderstood that the
small stream at Dalakee brings in a revenue of 4000 rupees
a year; and that one cannaut, lately opened by Kulb Allee
Khan, governor of Kauzeroon, affords a stream at least five or
six times more considerable. Among other uses, it serves to
irrigate a garden which contains some of the finest orange
trees both bitter and sweet, shaddock, lime, and pomegranate
trees, that can be found in the country. Frazer's Khorassan,
p. 79.
122 Rerits.
Book I. wBS dotted over with small mounds, which indicate
^P'i^* the course of cannauts, once the source of riches
Sect. 3. . , '
and fertility, now all choked up and dry, for there
Persian jjg neither man nbr cultivation to require their aid\"
The district of Nishapore was another celebrated
seat of Persian cultivation. "It was added," says
Mr. Frazer, (speaking of the information he received
concerning this place ;) " that in the different depart-
ments of Nishapore they reckon 14000 distinct villages,
all inhabited, and irrigated by 12000 cannauts and
18 small rivers from the mountains. This mag-
nificent detail is no doubt greatly exaggerated, being
but a reiteration of the traditional account of this
place in its days of high prosperity : no such vast
population or cultivation now exists; most of the
villages are ruinous; the cannauts, the remains of
which, covering the plain, may serve almost to attest
the truth of the above statement, are now choked
up and dry"."
Now the principal revenue of the monarchs of
Persia is derived from the produce of the earth, of
which they are the supreme owners. It could not es-
cape even their eyes, blinded as they are by greediness
and habits of rapine, that the cost of thus wresting
cultivated spots from the desert, and maintaining
them in fruitfulness, would never be incurred, un-
less the undertakers felt really secure that their
property in them would be subsequently respected.
By the laws of Persia, therefore, he who brings
water to the surface, where it never was before, is
> Frazer, p. 118. * Frazer, p. 405.
Rents. 123
guaranteed by the sovereign in the hereditary pos- ^!^°^^^
session of the land fertilized by him, and while a sect. 3.
reserved rent of one-fifth of the produce is paid to — ; —
the Shah, the possessor disposes of it as he pleases, Ryots.
and is effectually its proprietor, subject to a rent
charge. If he chooses to let out the water, at money
rents, to other persons who have lands, which already
pay the royal rent in produce, then the rent of the
water is his own : the crown profits only by addi-
tional fertility thus bestowed upon spots, in the
produce of which it shares. Among the Persians
of property, most usually those in office, making
cannauts is a favorite speculation ; the villagers, too,
often join and construct them, and these are the
best proofs that this guarantee of the sovereign is
faithfully observed.
Making proper allowances, however, for the more
steady respect for subordinate interests, which the
outlay for artificial irrigation makes necessary on the
part of the Persian sovereigns, their management of
the territory they own is very similar to what we
have seen prevails in India. The ryots inhabiting
villages cultivate the soil in. common, or in allotments
determined among themselves ; their interest in the
land is hereditary. "The original customary law
concerning property," says Mr. Frazer, *' clearly pro-
vided with much consideration for the security of the
ryot. The rights of the villager were guarded at
least as carefully as these of his lord : his title to
cultivate his portion of land descends to him from the
original commencement of the village to which he
belongs, and can neither be disputed or refused him,
1 a4 Rents.
Boor I. nor can he forfeit it, nor can the lord of the village
Chap. IV. j,jggj. ^^y j.yQ^;^ while he conducts himself well and
pays his portion of the rent\"
Persian 'p^g jQ^it at prcscnt cxactcd from the ryot is
one-fifth part of the produce; it has varied and
been differently assessed at the discretion of dif-
ferent Princes, more particularly Nushirvan and
Timour. The Persians now state that by ancient
custom only one-tenth was due : that the other
tenth was agreed to be paid on a promise that the
saaduraut or irregular taxes should cease; but that
though the additional tenth has been exacted, the
taxes remain at least as oppressive as before*.
Above these hereditary cultivators is a subordinate
proprietor, often called by Frazer the lord of the vil-
lage, who is entitled to one-tenth of the crop. In
this man the Indian Zemindar is immediately recog-
nized: but though the word Zemindar was ori-
ginally Persian, it does not appear to be in familiar
use in Persia at present. The right of hereditary
succession to this intermediate interest cannot have
been fully recognized for any very long period.
Chardiu states that in his time the practice of
taking leases for 99 years from the crown was only
beginning to establish itself Bernier distinctly
denies that such a thing as private property in land
was known in Persia. The interests of this class
of men have naturally gathered strength and per-
manence in Persia, even more rapidly than in India,
from the necessity of advances for the purposes of
' Frazer, p. 208. " Frazer, p. 211.
Rents. 125
irrigation, which were usually made by them. Their Book i.
right to the tenth of the produce seems to be now gg^J'^*
so completely severed from the duties of collection,
that the jealousy of the Persian monarchs forbids Ryots."
them sometimes even to reside in their villages,
to prevent, it is said, their tyrannizing over the
ryots ^ more probably to get rid of their interference
in resisting the exactions of the government officers,
which it is found they can do more effectually than
the ryots themselves^
There are persons in Persia who boast, perhaps
with truth, that these estates, as they call them, have
been in the hands of their family for a long succession
of years. Did there exist a real body of landed pro-
prietors in Persia, as secure in the possession of their
heritage as these men are in their limited interests,
the despotism of the Shah would at once be shackled.
But men entitled to collect one-tenth of the produce
from tenants hereditary like themselves, while the
great sovereign proprietor is collecting a fifth at the
same time, are little likely to acquire an influence in
the country, sufficient to protect either the subor-
dinate ryots or themselves ; and accordingly the chief
weight of what is probably one of the worst govern-
ments in the world, rests upon the necks of the
cultivators. " There is no class of men (says Frazer)
' Frazer, p. 208.
* Frazer, p. 390. The Ketkhoda (head man of the village)
observed that those ryots who account with their landlords,
are better off than those who account directly to government,
from the officers of which the poorer classes suffer great ex-
tortions.
126 Rents.
Book I. " whosc situatioii prcscnts a more melancholy pic-
chap. u. a ^^j.^ q£ oppressioH and tyranny than the farmers
" and cultivators of the ground in Persia. They
Persian « Jivc coutiuually uudcr a system of extortion and
" injustice, from which they have no means of es-
" cape, and which is the more distressing, because
"it is indefinite both in form and extent, for no
" man can tell when, how, or to what amount de-
•' inands upon him may without warning be made.
" It is upon the farmers and peasantry that the
"whole extortion practised in the country finally
" alights. The king wrings from his ministers and
" governors ; they must procure the sums required
" from the heads of districts, who in their turn
" demand it from the zabuts or ketkhodahs of vil-
" lages, and these must at last squeeze it from the
" ryots ; each of these intermediate agents must also
" have their profits, so that the sum received by
" the king bears small proportion to that which is
"paid by the ryots. Every tax, every present,
" every fine, from whomsoever received or demanded
" in the first instance, ultimately falls on them,
" and such is the character of their rulers, that the
" only measure of these demands is the power to
" extort on the one hand, and the ability to give
"or retain on the other'."
' Frazer, n. 173.
Reyits. 127
SECTION IV.
On Ryot Rents in Turkey.
When the Turks, after subduing the provinces book l
of the Greek Empire, finally quartered themselves gg^t 7
upon its ruins, the foundation of their system of
revenue and government, like that of other Tartar r"o^*^
tribes, rested upon an assumption that their leader
had become the legitimate proprietor of the con-
quered soil.
The rent imposed upon the cultivators appears
to have been originally calculated at one-tenth of
the gross produce ; and the estimated value of each
district, at that rate, was at a very early date
registered in the treasury. The registers are still
used, in accounting with the Pachas of the different
provinces. But as the rent paid by each district
never varies, whatever changes take place in its cul-
tivation, the decay of agriculture and population
has loaded many of the peasants with much heavier
burthens than they at first bore. One-seventh of
the produce where the cultivator is a Turk, one-
fifth where he is a Christian, have appeared to later
travellers in Greece to be about the average actual
payment to the crown.
The violence with which the Turks exemplified
in practice their Asiatic notions of the supreme
right of their leader to the soil, will be best judged
of by their next measure.
The Sultan granted a considerable portion of his
proprietary rights to others, for the purpose of form-
128 Rents.
Book I. inff a sort of feudal militia. The officers of rank
Chap. IV. j.gj,gjyg^ allotments of land called ziamets and timars,
Sect. 4. _ _ '
in which their rights represent those of the sovereign,
Turkish g^^^j ^\^q numbcr created of these exceeded 50,000.
Ryots.
The ziamet differed from the timars only in being
larger. For these grants they were bound to perform
military services, with a specified number of men.
Th6ir forces constituted, till the rise of the Janissa-
ries, the main force of the Empire, and amounted
it is said to 150,000 men. Similar grants are known
in India by the name of laghires, in Persia by
that of Teecools, but they were established less
systematically in those countries than in Turkey.
There these lands have never become hereditary.
They are still strictly lifehold. In the early days
of their institution, use was made of them to excite
military emulation. On the death of the possessor,
one of the bravest of his comrades was immediately
appointed to his estate, and one timar has been known
to be thus granted eight times in a single campaign \
The disposal of them, however, has long become
wholly venal. An Aga not unfrequently purchases
during his life the grant of the reversion to his family;
but if he neglects to do this, his relatives are dispos-
sessed at his death, unless they outbid all other appli-
cants". With the exception of these interests for life,
and of the estates vested in the Ulcma or expounders
of Mohammedan law, there are no distinctly recog-
nized proprietary rights in Turkey. Although there,
as among the* ryots of India and Persia, and else-
' Thornton, p. l66. ' Oliv. p. 19'2.
Rents. 129
where throughout the east, there exist claims to ^^^ ^'
Chap. iv.
the hereditary possession of land. While the pea- sect. 4.
sant pays to the Sultan, or to the Aea to whose
Zaim or Timar he belongs, the legal portion of Ryots!
his produce, his right to occupy and transmit his
lands is not contested, and is secure, as far as any
thing is secure there. In Greece the lands were,
before the present convulsion, very generally cul-
tivated by the ancient mortitae or metayer tenants,
who paid to the Agas half of their produce.
Whether the lands thus cultivated consist exclu-
sively of the domain lands attached to the Aga's
Timar, or whether this rent is paid in considera-
tion of stock advanced to the ray ah, to enable
him to cultivate better the lands of which he is
himself the hereditary tenant, T have no materials
for judging. It is probable that mortitae are found
of both descriptions.
There are evidently some advantages in the
Turkish system compared with those of India or
Persia. The permanence and moderation of the
miri or land rent, is a very great one. If collected
on an equitable system, that rent would be no
more than a reasonable land tax, and the universal
proprietorship of the Sultan would be reduced to
a mere nominal or honorary superiority, like that
claimed by many of the Christian monarchs of Eu-
rope. We may add, that the Turkish government
has never been so wholly unequal to the task of
controlling its officers, as the feeble dynasties of
Delhi in their decline: nor so rapacious and capri-
cious in its own exactions as the Shahs of Persia:
I
130 Rents.
Book I. -^^^ j^g comparative moderation and strength have
Sect. 4. remained useless to its unhappy subjects, from a
Tii^dliT degree of supineness and indifference as to the
Ryots. malversations of its distant officers, which may be
traced, partly perhaps to the bigotry which has
made the commander of the faithful careless about
the treatment his Christian subjects received from
Mahometan officers: and partly to an obstinate
ignorance of the ordinary arts of civilized govern-
ments, which the vanity of the Ottomans has che-
rished as if it were a merit, and which their bigotry
has also helped to recommend to their good opinion.
Near the capital, and in the countries where the
Turks themselves are numerous, there are some
bounds to the oppression of the Pachas and Agas.
The Turks, secure of justice if they can contrive
to be heard by the superior authorities, have found
the means of protecting their persons and proper-
ties, by belonging to societies, which are bound as
bodies, to seek justice for the wrongs of individual
members. But in the distant provinces no sect is
safe. The cry of the oppressed is easily stifled,
and if faintly heard, seems habitually disregarded.
The Sultan indeed abstains, with singular forbear-
ance, from any attempts to raise the revenue paid
to himself; but provided it is regularly transmitted
by the Pachas of the provinces, he cares little by
what means, or with what additional extortions, it
is wrung from the people. The consequences are
such as might be expected. The jealousy of the
government allows the Pachas to remain in office
but a short time, the knowledge of this inflames
Rents. 131
their cupidity, and the wretched cultivators are Book i.
allowed to exist in peace upon the soil, only while ^*f 4^^*
they submit to exactions which have no other limit
than the physical impossibility of getting more from Jy^^^^
them.
Volney has accurately described the effect of this
state of things in Syria and Egypt. " The absolute
" title of the Sultan to the soil appears to aggra-
" vate the oppression of his officers. The son is
" never certain of succeeding to the father, and the
" peasantry often fly in desperation from a soil which
" has ceased to yield them the certainty of even
" a bare subsistence. Exactions, undiminished in
" amount, are demanded, and as far as possible
" extorted, from those who remain ; depopulation
"goes on, the waste extends itself, and desolation
" becomes permanent." It is thus that a scanty
and most miserable remnant of the people are found
occupying tracts, which were the glory of ancient
civilization; and of which the climate and the soil
are such, that men would multiply and would en-
rich, almost without effort, themselves and their
masters; did the general government think lit to
protect its subjects with half the energy it some-
times exerts, to force the spoilers to disgorge a
miserable pittance of plunder into the imperial
treasury.
i2
132 Rents
SECTION V.
Of Ryot Rents in China.
Book I. We know enough of China to be aware, that
Sect r *^^ sovereign is t^iere, as elsewhere in Asia, the
sole proprietor of the soil : but we hardly know
RyoTs!^ enough to judge accurately of the peculiar modi-
fications which this system of imperial ownership
has received in that country. The manner in which
the Chinese government assumes possession of the
land, and imposes a rent upon it in the case of new
conquests, is curiously illustrated by a letter of
a victorious Chinese commander to the Emperor,
published by Mr. Patton*. Although one-tenth of
the produce is the nominal rent in China, it is not
unlikely that a very different portion is actually
collected. It would be very interesting to have
more multiplied and detailed observations on the
practical effects of the system among the Chinese,
than the jealousy of the government is likely soon
to give opportunity for obtaining.
The progress and effects of ryot rents in China,
must almost necessarily have been very different from
those exhibited by India, Persia, or Turkey. In
these last countries, the vices of the government,
and the oppression and degradation resulting from
them, have left us little means of judging what
might be the results of the system itself, if con-
ducted for any considerable period by an adminis-
tration more mild and forbearing, and capable of
^ Patton, 232, 233.
Rents. 133
giving security to the persons and property of the p°°*.''
cultivators. In China this experiment seems to have Scct.5.
been fairly tried. The arts of government are, to Chinese
a certain extent, understood by the laboriously edu- ^^°*^'
cated civilians, by whose hands the affairs of the
Empire are carried on ; the country has, till very
lately, been remarkably free from intestine convul-
sion or serious foreign w^ars, and the administration
has been vs^ell organized, pacific and efficient. The
whole conduct indeed of the Empire, presents a
striking contrast to that of the neighbouring Asiatic
monarchies, the people of which, accustomed to see
violence and bloodshed the common instruments of
government, express great wonder at the spectacle of
the Chinese statesmen upholding the authority of
the state rather by the pen than the sword\ One
effect we know to have followed from the public
tranquillity; the spread of agriculture, and an in-
crease of people much beyond that of the neighbour-
ing countries. While not one half of India has
ever been reclaimed, and less still of Persia, China
is as fully cultivated, and more fully peopled than
most European monarchies.
Whether any class of subordinate proprietors
exists between the crown and the persons paying
produce rents like to the Zemindars, of India;
^ Frazer, Appendix, p. 114. See Frazer's account of the
Chinese administration in the provinces nearest Khorasan, and
of the effect which the spectacle of that administration pro-
duced on the minds of merchants and travellers from other
Asiatic states.
134. Rents.
^^^ ^- whether the persons actually liahle for the pro-
ft^i[2 duce rents, are the cultivating peasants themselves,
or a class above them, we have no sufficient data
Sour *® determine. In some cases, at least, the actual
cultivators are persons hiring the ground from those
liable for the crown, and paying them half the
produce.
There are abundant indications that the Chinese
population has, in some parts of the Empire, in-
creased beyond the number for which the territory
can produce a plentiful subsistence, and that they
are in a state of the most wretched penury. The
very facilities for increase which good government
gives to a ryot population, will usually be followed
by such a consequence, if in the progress of their
multiplication a certain advance has not taken place
in the habits and civilization of the mass of the
people. The absence of that improvement may flow
from various causes, which in unfolding the subject
of population, it will be part of oiir business to dis-
tinguish. We know enough of China to be sure,
that obstacles to the amelioration of the habits and
character of the mass of the people, exist in abundance
there, and therefore the rapid spread of population,
up to a certain point, would certainly be the first effect
of a mild administration. According to Klaproth,
the number of ryots (paysans contribuables) at the
time of the Mantchou conquest in 1644, was re-
gistered as twenty-six millions, while all other classes
were estimated at eleVen millions. And since that
time he calculates that the whole population has
quadrupled.
Rents. 135
The revenue of China amounts to about eighty- ^^^^ ^•
four millions of ounces of silver. Of this revenue, o ^^ l^'
sect. 5.
about thirty-three millions is paid in money, and
about fifty-one millions in grains, rice, &c., con- ^hinese
J /• 1 O ^ ' ' Ryots.
sumed for the most part by the local administration
of the provinces. A portion only, of the value of
about six millions of ounces, is annually remitted
to Pekin. The receipt of this huge revenue, in
the primitive shape of agricultural produce, is a
striking proof that the power and means of the
Emperor of China, like those of other eastern
sovereigns, are intimately connected with, or rather
founded on, his rights as universal proprietor of
the soiP.
There are other considerable countries in Asia
in which we have good reason to conclude, that
ryot rents prevail ; consisting, first, of the countries
between Hindostan and China, the Birman Em-
pire, and its dependencies. Cochin China, &c. ; and,
secondly, of the states inhabited by agricultural
Tartars, north of the Himalaya mountains and east
of Persia, Samarcan, Bokhara, and the states of
Little Bucharia: but the peculiar modifications the
system may receive in these countries, and the de-
tails of the relations there between landlord and
tenant, are at present even more out of our reach
than in the case of China.
^ Bulletin des Sciences, No. 5, Mai 1829- p. 314.
136
SECTION VI.
Mixture of other Rents with Ryot.
Book I. On examining, where we are able to do it mi-
g^^"g^' nutely, the state of the countries in which ryot rents
prevail, we are immediately struck with the fact,
SlnL *^^^ ^^^y ^^® sometimes mixed up with both labor
rents and metayer rents. The land then presents
a strange complication of interests. There is an
hereditary tenant, liable to a produce rent to the
crown, and by custom and prescription irremove-
able while he pays it. This same tenant, receiving
some assistance in seed and implements, pays a
second produce rent to another person, whose cha-
racter fluctuates between that of an hereditary officer
of the crown, and that of a subordinate proprietor ;
and sometimes a third rent is paid to this subordi-
nate proprietor, in labor, exerted on land cultivated
for his exclusive benefit.
To begin with the labor rents, thus engrafted
on ryot rents. The Ryot of Bengal often grants a
plot of his ground to a ploughman who assists him.
This is a pure labor rent, paid by the under-tenant.
The Zemindars often demand from the ryots them-
selves, a certain quantity of labor, to be performed
on their domain lands. This demand is often ex-
cessive, and is the source of grievous oppression and
frequent complaint, both in India and Persia. When
moderate however, it is considered legal, and then
forms another labor rent, paid by the ryot himself.
Rents. 137
The Agas of Turkey often force the rayahs of Booi i.
their Zaims or Timars, to perform a certain number s^q'
of days' work on their own private farms. This is
unquestionably altogether an illegal exaction ; but ^°Jj
is so customary that it must be counted in practice
as an additional rent.
Metayer rents too have a constant tendency to
spring up and engraft themselves on ryot rents
throughout Asia, wherever the moderation and ef-
ficiency of the government is such as to ensure pro-
tection to the property advanced to the cultivator,
or wherever the relation of the party advancing stock
to the cultivator, is such as to give a peculiar power
of enforcing payment, and a peculiar interest in as-
sisting cultivation. Both the government and the
Zemindars in India occasionally advance seed and
stock to the ryot. The government reluctantly^ and
only when it cannot avoid it : the lands thus cul-
tivated on the part of government, are called coss and
eomar; and to get them into the hands of ryots, who
can cultivate themselves, seems to have been always
an object of policy. The Zemindars more readily
and habitually make such advances, and as their
share of the produce is then regulated wholly by
their private bargain with the ryot, he no doubt is
occasionally much oppressed: but this is not always
the case. In Persia particularly, this arrangement
is considered the best for the tenant; because in that
country, it is only in this case, that the Zemindar
or subordinate proprietor undertakes to ward off
the extortion of the officers of the crown, and to
settle with them himself.
138
SECTION VII.
Summary of Ryot Rents.
Book I. There is nothing mischievous in the direct effect
gect.7. of ryot rents. They are usually moderate; and when
■ restricted to a tenth, or even a sixth, fifth, or fourth
g^u, of the produce, if collected peacefully and fairly,
they become a species of land tax, and leave the
tenant a beneficial hereditary estate. It is from
their indirect effects, therefore, and from the form of
government in which they originate, and which they
serve to perpetuate, that they are full of evil, and
are found in practice more hopelessly destructive of
the property and progress of the people, than any
form of the relation of landlord and tenant known
to us.
The proprietary rights of the sovereign, and
his large and practically indefinite interest in the
produce, prevent the formation of any really inde-
pendent body on the land. By the distribution of
the rents which his territory produces, the monarch
maintains the most influential portion of the re-
maining population in the character of civil or mili-
tary officers. There remain only the inhabitants of
the towns to interpose a check to his power : but
the majority of these are fed by the expenditure of
the sovereign or his servants. We shall have a
fitter opportunity to point out, how completely the
prosperity, or rather the existence, of the towns of
Asia, proceeds from the local expenditure of the
government. As the citizens arc thus destitute
Rents. 139
from their position of real strength, so the Asiatic ^ook i.
sovereigns, having no hody of powerftil privileged sect. 7.
landed proprietors to contend with, have not had
the motives which the European monarchs had, iJnta.
to nurse and foster the towns into engines of
political influence, and the citizens are proverbially
the most helpless and prostrate of the slaves of Asia.
There exists nothing therefore in the society beneath
him, which can modify the power of a sovereign, who
is the supreme proprietor of a territory cultivated by
a population of ryot peasants. All that there is of
real strength in such a population, looks to him as
the sole source not merely of protection but of sub-
sistence : he is by his position and necessarily a
despot. But the results of Asiatic despotism have
ever been the same: while it is strong it is dele-
gated, and its power abused by its agents ; when
feeble and declining, that power is violently shared
by its inferiors, and its stolen authority yet more
abused. In its strength and in its weakness it is
alike destructive of the industry and wealth of its
subjects, and all the arts of peace; and it is this
which makes that peculiar system of rents, on
which its power rests, particularly objectionable and
calamitous to the countries in which it prevails.
In countries cultivated by ryots, the wages of
the main body of the people are determined by the
rent they pay, as is the case it will be remembered
under all varieties of peasant rents. The quantity
of produce being determined by the fertility of the
soil, the extent of his allotments of land, and the
skill, industry, and efficiency of the ryot : the divi-
tion of that produce on which his wages depend, is
14C Rent*.
Book I. determined by his contract with the landlord, that
gg*^y^' is, by the rent he pays.
In like manner the amount of rent in such
^' countries is determined by the amount off wages.
The amount of the produce being decided as before,
the landlord's share, the rent, depends upon the
contract he makes with the laborer, that is, upon the
amount deducted as wages.
The existence and progress of rents under the
ryot system is in no degree dependent upon the
existence of different qualities of soil, or different
returns to the stock and labor employed on each.
The sovereign proprietor has the means of enabling
a bod of laborers to maintain themselves, who with-
out the machinery of the earth with which he sup-
plies them, must starve. This would secure him a
share in the produce of their labor, though all the
lands were perfectly equal in quality.
Ryot rents may increase from two causes, from
an increase of the whole produce, effected by the
greater skill, industry, and efficiency of the tenant:
or from an increase of the sovereign's proportion
of the produce ; the produce itself remaining the
same, and the tenant's share becoming less.
When the rent increases and the produce re-
mains stationary, the increase indicates no augment-
ation of public wealth. There has been a transfer
of wealth, but no increase of it ; and one party
is impoverished by the precise amount that an-
other is enriched. But when ryot rents increase
because the produce has become larger, the country
is enriched by an addition of wealth to the full
amount of the increase. Its power of maintaining
Rents. 141
fleets and armies, and all the elements of public .!!*'°^/"
■•• Lnap. IV.
strength, have been augmented to that extent ; there Sect. 7.
has been a real increase of wealth, not a mere trans-
fer of what before existed, from one hand to another. Rents.
Such an increase too indicates an augmentation of
the revenues of the ryots themselves. If the tenth
or sixth of the sovereign has doubled, the nine-tenths
or five-sixths of the ryot have doubled also.
The increase of rents which is thus seen to go
hand in hand with the improvement of the general
wealth and strength, is that which alone in the long
run can really benefit the landlord. While an increase
of produce rents has its source in greater crops, it
may go on till the skill of man and the fertility of
the earth have reached their maximum, that is, in-
definitely. Asiatic tenants, cultivating with their
own soil and climate, and the skill and energy
of the best European farmers, might create produce
much greater than any yet known in that quarter
of the globe, and be greatly improving their own
revenue while they were paying increased rents to
the sovereign. And while the prosperity of the ryots
thus kept pace with the increase of rents, the result
would be, not merely an increase of the crops on the
lands already cultivated, but the rapid spread of cul-
tivation to other lands. A protected and thriving and
increasing population would speedily reclaim the rich
wastes of Turkey and India, and call back their va-
nished fertility to the deserted plains of Persia, mul-
tiplying at every step both the direct revenue of the
sovereign landlord, and his resources in the general
wealth of his people. Taking Asia as a whole, such
a progress seems visionary, but it is occasionally exhi-
142 Rents.
Book I. bited, on a smaller scale, in a manner which very dis-
g^J^i'* tinctly proves it possible, and indeed easy on the
-^ greatest'. An increase of rents derived from a sta-
^1^ tionary produce, and a diminution of the ryot's
share, are unfortunately more common in Asia, and
lead to no such results. In the state in which the
ryots usually exist, to decrease their revenue is to
injure if not to destroy their eflficiency as agents of
cultivation. A serious invasion of it is very usually
followed, and carried to a certain extent it must be
followed, by the desertion of the cultivators and the
abandonment of cultivation, and a total cessation
of rent. The greediness of eastern rulers ordinarily
snatches at the bait of present gain, and overlooks
or disregards the very different ultimate conse-
quences which follow the augmenting their landed
revenues, from the one, or from the other, of these
sources of increase. Hence in a great measure the
actual state of Asia, the misery of the people, the
poverty and feebleness of the governments. An ex-
amination into the nature and effects of ryot rents,
receives an almost mournful interest from the con-
viction, that the political and social institutions of
the people of this large division of the earth, are
likely for many long ages yet to come, to rest upon
them. We cannot unveil the future, but there is
little in the character of the Asiatic population,
which can tempt us even to speculate upon a
time, when that future, with respect to them, will
essentially differ from the past and the present.
' Appendix.
143
CHAPTER V.
Cottier Rents.
Under the head of cottier rents, we may include Book i.
all rents contracted to be paid in money, by pea- ^^'^'
sant tenants, extracting their own maintenance from Cottier
.1 •-, Rents.
the soil.
They are found to some extent in various coun-
tries ; but it is in Ireland alone that they exist
in such a mass, as palpably to influence the general
state of the country. They differ from the other
classes of peasant rents in this the most materially ;
that it is not enough for the tenant to be prepared
to give in return for the land which enables him
to maintain himself, a part of his labor, as in the
case of serf rents, or a definite proportion of the
produce, as in the case of metayer or ryot rents.
He is bound, whatever the quantity or value of
his produce may be, to pay a fixed sum of money
to the proprietor. This is a change most difficult
to introduce, and very important when introduced.
Money payments from the occupiers, are by no
means essential, we must recollect, to the rise or
progress of rents. Over by far the greater part of
the globe such payments have never yet been esta-
blished. Tenants yielding plentiful rents in pro-
duce, may be quite unable, from the infrequency
of exchanges, to pay even small sums in money, and
the owners of the land may, and do, form an afiSuent
Renta.
144 Rents.
Book I. body.. consuming and distributing a large proportion
'^'^' of the annual produce of a country, while it is ex-
Cottier tremely difficult for them to lay their hands on very
insignificant sums in cash. Money rents, indeed,
are so very rarely paid by peasant cultivators, that
where they do exist among them, we may expect to
find the power of discharging them founded on pe-
culiar circumstances. In the case of Ireland, it is the
neighbourhood of England, and the connection be-
tween the two countries, which supports the system
of money rents paid by the peasantry. From all
parts of Ireland, the access, direct or indirect, to
the English market, gives the Irish cultivators
means of obtaining cash for a portion of their pro-
duce. In some districts, it even appears that the
rents are paid in money earnt by harvest-work in
England ; and it is repeatedly stated in the evi-
dence before the Emigration Committee, that, were
this resource to fail, the power of paying rents would
cease in these districts at once. Were Ireland placed
in a remoter part of the world, surrounded by nations
not more advanced than herself, and were her cul-
tivators dependent for their means of getting cash
on her own internal opportunities of exchange ; it
seems highly probable, that the landlords would
soon be driven by necessity to adopt a system of
either labor or produce rents, similar to those which
prevail over the large portion of the globe, cultivated
by the other classes of peasant tenantry.
Once established, however, the effects of the pre-
valence of cottier rents among a peasant population
are important: some advantageous, some prejudicial.
Rents. 145
In estimating them, we labor under the great Book i.
disadvantage of having to form our general conclu- _^^'
sions from a view of a single instance, that of Ire- Cottier
land. Did we know nothing of labor rents but
what we collect from one country, Hungary for
instance, how very deficient would have been notions
of their characteristics.
The disadvantages of cottier rents may be ranged
under three heads. First, the want of any exter-
nal check to assist in repressing the increase of the
peasant population beyond the bounds of an easy
subsistence. Secondly,* the want of any protection
to their interests, from the influence of usage and
prescription in determining the amount of their pay-
ments. And, thirdly, the absence of that obvious
and direct common interest, between the owners
and the occupiers of the soil, which under the other
systems of peasant rents, secure to the tenants the
forbearance and assistance of their landlords when
calamity overtakes them.
The first, and certainly the most important dis-
advantage of cottier rents is the absence of those
external checks (common to every other class of
peasant rents) which assist in repressing the effects
of the disposition found in all peasant cultivators,
to increase up to the limits of a very scanty sub-
sistence.
To explain this, we must, to a slight extent,
anticipate the subject of population. It shall be as
shortly as possible. We know that men's animal
power of increase is such, as to admit of a very
£
146 Renta.
Book I. rapid replenishing of the districts they inhabit.
_^^' When their numbers are as great as their terri-
Cottier tory will support in plenty, if the effects of such
a power of increase are not diminished, their con-
dition must get worse. If, however, the effects of
their animal power of multiplication are diminished,
this must happen, either from internal causes or
motives, indisposing them to its full exercise, or
from external causes acting independently of their
will. But a peasant population, raising their own
wages from the soil, and consuming them in kind,
whatever may be the form of their rents, are uni-
versally acted upon very feebly by internal checks,
or by motives disposing them to restraint. The
causes of this peculiarity we shall have hereafter
to point out. The consequence is, that unless some
external cause, quite independent of their will, forces
such peasant cultivators to slacken their rate of in-
crease, they will, in a limited territory, whatever
be the form of their rents, very rapidly approach
a state of want and penury, and will be stopped
at last only by the physical impossibility of pro-
curing subsistence. Where labor or metayer rents
prevail, such external causes of repression are found
in the interests and interference of the landlords :
where ryot rents are established, in the vices and
mismanagement of the government^: where cottier
^ Where the phenomenon can be observed of a mild and
efficient government over a race of ryot tenants, as in China,
they are found to increase with extraordinary rapidity.
Rents. 147
rents prevail, no such external causes exist, and ®*^* '•
the unchecked disposition of the people leads
to a multiplication which ends in wretchedness. Cottier
Cottier rents, then, evidently differ for the worse
in this respect from serf and metayer rents. It is
not meant of course that serfs and metayers do not
increase till their numhers and wants would alone
place them very much at the mercy of the pro-
prietors, but the obvious interests of those proprie-
tors leads them to refuse their assent to the further
division of the soil; and so to withhold the means
of settling more families, long before the earth be-
comes thronged with a multitudinous tenantry, to
which it can barely yield subsistence. The Russian
or Hungarian noble wants no more serf tenants than
are sufficient for the cultivation of his domain ; and
he refuses allotments of land to any greater num-
ber, or perhaps forbids them to marry. The power
of doing this has at one time or other existed as
a legal right wherever labor rents have prevailed.
The owner of a domain cultivated by metayers, has
an interest in not multiplying his tenants, and the
mouths to be fed, beyond the number necessary to
its complete cultivation. When he refuses to sub-
divide the ground further, fresh families can find
no home, and the increase of the aggregate num-
bers of the people is checked. The thinness of the
population in ryot countries is ordinarily caused by
the vices and violence of the government, and there
is no question that this is what keeps so large a
portion of Asia ill peopled or desolate. But when
cottier rents have established themselves, the in-
k2
148 Rents.
Book 1. fluencc of the landlord is not exerted to check the
Chap. V. . . .
multiplication of the peasant cultivators, till an
Cottier extreme case arrives. The first effects of the in-
creasing numbers of the people, that is, the more
ardent competition for allotments, and the general
rise of rents, seem for a time unquestionable ad-
vantages to the landlords, and they have no direct
or obvious motive to refuse further subdivision, or
to interfere with the settlement of fresh families,
till the evident impossibility of getting the sti-
pulated rents, and perhaps the turbulence of pea-
sants starving on insufficient patches of land, warn
the proprietors that the time is 'come, when their
own interests imperiously require that the multi-
plication of the tenantry should be moderated. We
know, however, from the instance of Ireland, the
only one on a large scale open to our observation,
that while rents are actually rising, a conviction
that their nominal increase is preparing a real di-
minution, comes slowly, and is received reluctantly ;
and that before such a conviction begins to be
generally acted upon, the cultivators may be reduced
to a situation, in which they are both wretched and
dangerous.
The tardiness with which landlords exert their in-
fluence in repressing the multiplication of the people,
must be ranked then among the disadvantages of
cottier, when compared with serf or metayer rents.
Their second disadvantage is the want of any
influence of custom and prescription, in keeping the
terms of the contract between the proprietors and
their tenantry, steady and fixed.
Rents. 149
In surveying the habits of a serf or metayer book i.
country, we are usually able to trace some ef- ^^'^'
fects of ancient usage. The number of days' Cottier
labor performed for the landlord by the serf re-
mains the same, from generation to generation, in
all the provinces of considerable empires. The me-^
tayer derived his old name of Colonus Medietarius
from taking half the produce ; and half the pro-
duce we see still his usual portion, throughout
large districts containing soils of very different
qualities. It is true that this influence of ancient
usage does not always protect the tenant from want
or oppression ; its tendency however is decidedly
in his favor. But cottier rents, contracted to be
paid in money, must vary in nominal amount with
the variations in the price of produce : after change
has become habitual, all traces of a rent, consi-
dered equitable because it is prescriptive, are wholly
lost, and each bargain is determined by compe-
tition.
There can be little doubt that the tendency to
constancy in the terms of their contract, observable
in serf and metayer countries, is on the whole a
protection- to the cultivators, and that change and
competition, common amongst cottiers, are disad-
vantageous to them.
The third disadvantage of cottier rents is the
absence of such a direct and obvious common in-
terest between landlord and tenant, as might se-
cure to the cultivator assistance when in distress.
There can be no case in which there is not, in
reality, a community of interest between the pro-
150 RenfB.
prietors of the soil, and those who cultivate it;
but their common interest in the other forms of
peasant holding, is more direct and obvious, and
therefore more influential, upon the habits and feel-
ings of both tenants and landlords. The owner of
a serf relies upon the labor of his tenants for pro-
ducing his own subsistence, and when his tenant
becomes a more inefficient instrument of cultiva-
tion, he sustains a loss. The owner of a metairie,
who takes a proportion of the produce, cannot but
see that the energy and efficiency of his tenant,
are his own gain : languid and imperfect cultiva-
tion his loss. The serf, therefore, relies upon his
lord's sense of interest, or feelings of kindness for
assistance, if his crops fail, or calamity overtakes
him in any shape ; and he seldom is repulsed or
deceived. This half recognized claim to assistance
seems, we know, occasionally, so valuable to the
serfs, that they have rejected freedom from the fear
of losing it. The metayers receive constantly loans
of food and other assistance from the landlord, when
from any causes their own resources fail. The fear
of losing their stock, their revenue, and all the
advances already made, prevent the most reluctant
landlords from withholding aid on such occasions.
Even the Ryot, miserable as he ordinarily is, and
great as is the distance which separates him from
the sovereign proprietor, is not always without some
share in these advantages. His exertions are felt
to be the great source of the revenue of the state,
and under tolerably well regulated governments,
the importance is felt and admitted, of aiding the
Rents. 151
cultivators when distressed, by forbearance, and Book i.
sometimes by advances \ The interests of the cot- ""P' ^'
tier tenant are less obviously identified with those Cotner
of the proprietor : changes of tenants, and varia- *^°'*'
tions of rent, are common occurrences, and the re-
moval of an unlucky adventurer, and the accept-
ance of a more sanguine bidder, are expedients
more easy and palateable to the proprietors, than that
of mixing themselves up with the risks and bur-
thens of cultivation, by advances to their tenants.
In the highlands of Scotland, indeed, the chief
assisted his clan largely. They were his kinsmen
and defenders : bound to him by ties of blood, and
the guardians of his personal safety. The habits
engendered while these feelings were fresh, are not
yet worn out. Lord Stafford has sent to Suther-
land very large supplies of food. The chief of
the isle of Rumsey supported his people to such
an extent, that he has lately found it worth while to
expend very considerable sums in enabling them to
emigrate*. But the cottier merely as such, the
Irish cottier, for instance, has no such hold on
the sympathies of his landlord, and there can be
no question that of the various classes of peasant
tenantry, they stand the most thoroughly desolate
and alone in the time of calamity : that they
have the least protection from the ordinary effects
of disastrous reverses, or of the failure of their
scanty resources from any other causes.
^ Aurenzebe's Instructions to his Collectors.
^ See Emigration Report.
152 Rents.
Book I.
Chap. V.
Such are tlie disadvantages of this the least ex-
tensive system of peasant rents. The principal ad-
Cottier vantage the cottier derives from his form of tenure,
IS the great facility with which, when circumstances
are favourable to him, he changes altogether his
condition in society. In serf, metayer, or ryot
countries, extensive changes must take place in the
whole framework of society, before the peasants
become capitalists, and independent farmers. The
serf has many stages to go through before he ar-
rives at this point, and we have seen how hard it
is for him to advance one step. The metayer too
must become the owner of the stock on his farm,
and be able to undertake to pay a money rent.
Both changes take place slowly and with difficulty,
especially the last, the substitution of money rents,
which supposes a considerable previous improvement
in the internal commerce of the nation, and is
ordinarily the result, not the commencement, of
improvement in the condition of the cultivators.
But the cottier is already the owner of his own
stock, he exists in a society in which the power of
paying money rents is already established. If he
thrives in his occupation, there is nothing io pre-
vent his enlarging his holding, increasing his stock,
and becoming a capitalist, and a farmer in the proper
sense of the word. It is pleasing to hear the resident
Irish landlords, who have taken some pains, and
made some sacrifices, to improve the character and
condition of their tenantry, bearing their testimony
to this fact, and stating the rapidity with which some
of the cottiers have, under their auspices, acquired
Rents. 153
stock, and become small farmers. Most of the conn- ^°(>^ ^•
tries occupied by metayers, serfs, and ryots, will pro- ^^'^'
bably contain a similar race of tenantry for some ages. Cottier
If the events of the next half century are favour-
able to Ireland, her cottiers are likely to disappear,
and to be merged in a very different race of cul-
tivators. This facility for gliding out of their
actual condition to a higher and a better, is an
advantage, and a very great advantage, of the cot-
teir over the other systems of peasant rents, and
atones for some of its gloomier features.
Making allowances for the peculiarities pointed
out, the effects of cottier rents on the wages of
labor, and other relations of society, will be similar
to those of other peasant rents. The quantity of
produce being determined by the fertility of the
soil, the extent of the allotment, and the skill
and industry of the cottier; the division of that
produce on which his wages depend, is determined
by his contract with the landlord; by the rent he
pays. And again, the whole amount of produce
being determined as before, the landlord's share,
the rent, depends upon the maintenance left to the
peasant, that is, upon his wages.
The existence of rent, under a system of cottier
tenants, is in no degree dependent upon the existence
of different qualities of soil, or of different returns
to the stock and labor employed. Where, as has
been repeatedly observed, no funds sufficient to
support the body of the laborers, are in existence,
they must raise food themselves from the earth,
or starve ; and. this circumstance would make them
154 Rents.
Book I. tributary to the landlords, and give rise to rents,
^^' ^' and, as their number increased, to very high rents,
Cottier though all the lands were perfectly equal in quality.
Cottier rents, like other peasant rents, may in-
crease from two causes ; first, from an increase of
the whole produce, of which increase the landlord
takes the whole or a part. Or, the produce re-
maining stationary, they may increase from an
augmentation of the landlord's share, that of the
tenant being diminished to the exact amount of
the additional rent.
When the rent increases and the produce re-
mains stationary, the increase of rent indicates no
increase of the riches and revenue of the country :
there has been a transfer of wealth, but no ad-
dition to it: one party is impoverished to the pre-
cise amount to which another is enriched.
When, on the other hand, increased rents are
paid by increased produce, there is an addition to
the wealth of the country, not a mere transfer of
that already existing : the country is richer to the
extent, at least, of the increased rent: and, pro-
bably, to a greater extent from the increased re-
venue of the cultivators.
It is obviously the interest of the landlord of
cottier, as of other peasant tenants, that an increase
of his rents should always originate in the prospe-
rity of cultivation, not in pressure on the tenants.
The power of increase from the last source is very
limited: from improvement, indefinite.
It is clearly too the interest of the landlord,
that the cottier tenantry should bo replaced by
Rents. 155
capitalists, capable both of pushing cultivation to Book j,
the full extent to which skill and means can carry ^*P' ^'
it : instead of the land being entrusted to the hands cotuer
of mere laborers, struggling to exist, unable to im- ^"^**
prove, and when much impoverished by competition,
degraded, turbulent, and dangerous.
As it is proposed to consider the present con-
dition of both the Irish and English poor at the
end of the work, when we shall have the assist-
ance of all the more general principles we shall
venture to unfold, the subject of cottier rents need
not be farther pursued here. They have already
been sufficiently examined, to shew the points in
which they will agree vsdth or differ from other
peasant rents.
of Peasant
Rents
156
CHAPTER VI.
SUMMARY OF PEASANT RENTS.
Injluence of Rent on Wages.
Book I. One important fact must strike us forcibly on
chap^. |QQ|.-jjg ^^^^ Q^ ^]^g collective body of those pri-
Summary mary or peasant rents, which we have been tracing,
in their various forms, over the surface of the
globe. It is their constant and very intimate con-
nection with the wages of labor.
In this respect the serf, the metayer, the ryot,
the cottier, are alike : the terms on which they can
obtain the spot of ground they cultivate, exercise
an active and predominant influence, in determining
the reward they shall receive for their personal ex-
ertions ; or, in other words, their real wages. We
should take a very false view of the causes which
regulate the amount of their earnings, if we merely
calculated the quantity of capital in existence at
any given time, and then attempted to compute
their share of it by a survey of their numbers. As
they produce their own wages, all the circumstances
which affect either their powers of production, or
their share of the produce, must be taken into the
estimate. And among these, principally, those cir-
cumstances, which we have seen distinguish one
set of peasant tenantry from another. The mode
in which their rent is paid, whether in labor, pro-
duce, or money : the effects of time and usage
Rents. 157
in softening, or exaggerating, or modifying, the Book i.
original form or results of their contract : all _^^'*
these things, and their combined effects, must be summary
carefully examined, and well considered, before we Rems*^"
can expect to understand what it is which limits
the wages of the peasant, and fixes the standard
of his condition and enjoyments.
While, then, the position of a large proportion
of the population of the earth continues to be
what it has ever yet been, such as to oblige them
to extract their own food with their own hands
from its bosom ; the form and condition of peasant
tenures, and the nature and amount of the rents
paid under them, will necessarily exercise a leading
influence on the condition of the laboring classes,
and on the real wages of their labor.
Influence of Peasant Rents on Agricultural
Production.
The next remarkable effect, common to all the
forms of peasant rents, is their influence in pre-
venting the full developeraent of the productive
powers of the earth.
If we observe the difference which exists in the
productiveness of the industry of different bodies
of men, in any of the various departments of hu-
man exertion, we shall find that difference to de-
pend, almost wholly, on two circumstances : first,
on the quantity of contrivance used in applying
manual labor : secondly, on the extent to which
the mere physical exertions of men's hands are
assisted by the accumulated results of past labor:
158 Rents.
Book I. {^i other worda, on the different quantities of skill,
^' knowledge, and capital, brought to the task of
Summary production. A difference in these, occasions all the
of X Cfts&nt
K«nts. difference between the productive powers of a body
of savages, and those of an equal body of English
agriculturists or manufacturers : and it occasions also
the less striking differences, which exist between the
productive powers of the various bodies of men, who
occupy gradations between these two extremes.
When the earth is cultivated under a system
of peasant rents, the task of directing agriculture,
and of providing what is necessary to assist its
operations, is either thrown wholly upon the pea-
sants, as in the case of ryot and cottier rents, or
divided between them and their landlords, as in
the case of serf and metayer rents. In neither of
these cases is the efficiency of agricultural industry
likely to be carried as far as it might be. Poverty,
and the constant fatigues of laborious exertion, put
both science, and the means of assisting his industry
by the accumulation of capital, out of the reach
of the peasant. And when the landlords have once
succeeded in getting rid in part of the burthen
of cultivation, and have formed a body of peasant
tenantry, it is in vain to hope for much steady
superintendance or assistance from them. The
fixed and secure nature of their property, and the
influence which it gives them in the early stages
of society over the cultivating class, that is, over
the great majority of the nation, lead to the for-
mation of feelings and habits, inconsistent with a
detailed attention to the conduct of cultivation;
Rents. 159
while they very rarely possess the power and the Boo«i-
temper steadily to accumulate the means of assist- 1_
ins: the industry employed on their estates. Some summary
skill, and some capital, must be found among the Rents.
very rudest cultivators : but the most efficient di-
rection of labor, and the accumulation and con-
trivance of the means to endow it with the greatest
attainable power, seem to be the peculiar province,
the appointed task, of a race of men, capitalists,
distinct from both laborers and landlords, more capa-
ble of intellectual efforts than the lower, more will-
ing to bring such efforts to bear on the improvement
of the powers of industry, than the higher, of those
classes. On the peculiar functions of this third
class of men in society, and of the various effects
moral, economical, and political, produced by the
multiplication of their numbers and their means,
we shall hereafter have to treat. Their absence
from the task of cultivation, which is common to
all the wide classes of peasant tenures, prevents that
perfect developement of the resources of the earth,
which their skill, their contrivance, and the power
tney exercise by the employment of accumulated
resources, do and can alone effect.
Small Numbers of the Non-agricultural Classes.
Resulting from this imperfect developement of
the powers of the earth, will be found a stunted
growth of the classes of society unconnected with
the soil. It is obvious, that the relative numbers
of those persons who can be maintained without
160 Rents.
Book I. agricultural labor, must be measured wholly by the
^^^^' ^^' productive powers of the cultivators. Where these
Summary cultivate skilfully, they obtain produce to maintain
Rents. themselves and many others; where they cultivate
less skilfully, they obtain produce sufficient to main-
tain themselves and a smaller number of others.
The relative numbers of the non-agricultural classes
will never be so great, therefore, where the resources
of the earth are developed with deficient or moderate
skill and power, as they are when these resources
are developed more perfectly. In France and Italy,
the agriculture of the peasant tenantry is good when
compared with that of similar classes elsewhere, and
the soil and climate are, on the whole, excellent;
yet the number of non-agriculturists is in France
only as 1 to 2, in Italy as 4 to 13, while in England,
with an inferior soil and climate (agricultural cli-
mate, that is,) the non-agriculturists are to the cul-
tivators as 2 to 1\ The relative numbers and in-
fluence of the non -agricultural classes powerfully
affect, as we have had occasion before to remark,
the social and political circumstances of different
countries, and, indeed, mainly decide what materials
each country shall possess, for the formation of those
mixed constitutions in which the power of the crown,
and of a landed aristocracy, are balanced and con-
trolled by the influence of numbers, and of pro-
perty freed from all dependance on the soil.
^ In England too, a larger number of animals are kept for
pleasure, and a variety of purposes unconnected with culti-
vation: the power of feeding these must be reckoned, when
we are calculating the efficiency of her agriculture.
Rents. 161
I shall not be understood of course, as mean- ^°°^ ^•
^hap. vi.
mg to assert, that the presence of a large propor-
tion of non-agriculturists is essential to the existence o^p™^^
of democratic institutions : we have abundance of Rents
instances to the contrary. But when a powerful
aristocracy already exists on the soil, as where
peasant rents prevail, it needs must ; then the
efficient introduction of democratic elements into
the constitution, depends almost entirely upon the
numbers and property of the non -agricultural classes.
The indirect influence of peasant tenures therefore,
in limiting the numbers of the non-agricultural
classes, must be reckoned among the most im-
portant of the political results of those tenures.
Identity of the Interests of Landlords with those
of their Tenantry and the Community.
A little attention is sufficient to shew, that
under all the forms of peasant tenures, the inter-
ests of the landlords are indissolubly connected
with those of their tenantry and of the community
at large. The interest of the state obviously is,
that the resources of its territory should be fully
developed by a class of cultivators free, rich, and
prosperous, and therefore equal to the task. The
interest of the tenant must ever be to increase
the produce of the land, on which produce he feeds,
to shake off the shackles of servile dependence : and
to attain that form of holding which leaves him
most completely his own master, and presents the
fewest obstructions to his accumulation of property.
L
162 Rentii.
Book 1. The interests of the landed proprietor concur
^' ^'' with these interests of the state and the tenantry.
Summary There is indeed a method by which his revenue
RenttL**" may be increased, neither beneficial to the commu-
nity, nor advantageous to the tenant ; that is, by
encroaching on the tenant's share of the produce,
while the produce itself remains unaltered. But
this is a limited and miserable resource, which con-
tains within itself the principles of a speedy stoppage
and failure. That full developement of the pro-
ductive powers of a territory, which is essential to
the progressive rise of the proprietor's income, can
never be forwarded by the increasing penury of the
cultivators. While the peasant is the agent or prin-
cipal instrument of production, the agriculture of
a country can never thrive with his deepening de-
pression. If the waste plains of Asia, and the forests
of Eastern Europe, are ever to produce to their pro-
prietors a revenue at all like what similar quantities
of land yield in the better cultivated parts of the
world; it is not by increasing the penury of the
race of peasantry by which are now loosely occu-
pied, that such a result will be brought about. Their
increased misery can only stay the spread of culti-
vation and diminish its powers. The miserable scan-
tiness of the produce of a great part of the earth,
is visibly mainly owing to the actual poverty and
degradation of the peasant cultivators. But the
real interest of the proprietors never can be to
snatch a small gain from a dwindling fund, which
at every invasion of theirs is less likely to be aug-
mented, when they might ensnrc a progressive in-
Renti. 163
crease from the indefinite augmentation of the fund Book l
itself. It is obviously therefore most advantageous ^'^'
to the proprietors, that their revenues should increase summary
from the increasing produce of the land, and not Rentt!™*
from the decreasing means of its cultivators; and
so far their interest is clearly the same with that
of the state and the peasantry.
And further, it is no less the interest of the
landlords, than it is that of other classes in the
state, that the ruder and more oppressive forms of
his contract with his tenant should gradually be
exchanged for others, more consistent with the
social and political welfare of the cultivators. The
landlord who receives labor rents must be a farmer
himself: the landlord of the metayer must support
most of the burthens of cultivation, and share in
all its hazards ; the landlord of the cottier must
be exposed to frequent losses from the failure of
the means of his tenantry, and after a certain point
in their depression, to considerable danger from their
desperation. All the advantages incident to the
position of a landed proprietor, are only reaped in
their best shape, when his income is fixed, and (ex-
traordinary casualties excepted) certain ; when he is
free from any share in the burthens and hazards
of cultivation ; when with the progress of national
improvement his property has its utmost powers of
production brought into full play, by a race of te-
nants possessed of intellect and means equal to the
task. The receiver of labor rents therefore, gains
a point when they are changed to produce rents;
the receiver of produce rents from a metayer gains
l2
164 Rc.ntM.
Book I- a point wlieii they are changed to money rents.
*^' ^'' The landlord of cottiers gains a point when they
Summary becomc Capitalists ; and the sovereign of the ryot
Rcntt!**"' cultivators gains a point when the produce due from
them can be commuted for fixed payments in money.
There is no one step in the prosperous career of
a peasant tenantry, of any description, at which the
interests of the landlords are not best promoted by
their prosperity : and that in spite of the admitted
possibility of a stinted gain to the proprietors, founded
on the increasing penury of the cultivators.
On the Causes of the long Dtirution of the Systems
of Primary or Peasant Rents.
Perhaps in an enquiry into the nature and effects
of the different systems of peasant rents, the most
interesting tract in the whole line of investigation,
is that in which we seek to discover the causes which
have kept them permanent and unchanged, over a
large part of the earth, through a long succession
of ages.
The interests of the state, of the proprietors, of
the tenantry themselves, are all advanced by the pro-
gressive changes which in prosperous communities suc-
cessively take place in the mode of cultivating the
soil. And yet in spite of the ordinary tendency of
human institutions to change, and of the numerous
interests which in this instance combine to make
change desirable, ages have travelled past, and a
great portion of the earth's surface is still tilled by
races of peasantry, holding tlic land by tenures and
Rents. 165
on conditions similar to those imposed upon the Book i.
persons in whose hands the task of cultivation ^^' ^'''
was first placed. Such are the serfs of the east, Summary
the metayers who cover the west of Europe, and Rentar*"^
the ryots who occupy the whole of Asia.
When we look at those countries in which pea-
sant rents have at any time prevailed, and observe
their actual condition with reference to past, or
probable changes, those rents shew themselves in
four unequal masses. PVom the^r*^ division, they
have already passed ; spontaneous changes, gradually
brought about, in slow succession, have obliterated
all marks of the earlier and ruder forms of hold-
ing. A race of capitalists providing the stock,
advancing the wages of labor, and paying fixed
money rents, have taken entire possession of the
task of cultivation, from which the proprietors are
completely extricated. The portion of the earth's sur-
face on which this has taken place is small. It com-
prises England, the greater part of Scotland, a part
of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and spots in
France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. In another
part of the globe, we see the causes which have
elsewhere produced the changes just referred to, still
actually at work, but their results yet incomplete.
Without any deliberate purpose on the part of any
class, changes are quietly and silently taking place,
through which the agricultural population are ad-
vancing to a position similar to that of the English
farmers and laborers. This process may be observed
in the west of Germany : there the serfs have for
some ages been going through a sluggish process
166 Rents.
Book I. of transmutatioTi into leibeigeners^ hereditary tenants
ch.p.vi. y^iiY^ fixed labor rents, and not chained to the soil.
Sammary The Icibeigencrs are slowly assuming the character
of Peasant ^f meyers, subject to an unaltierable produce rent ;
a very few steps in advance will range the meyer
by the side of the English copyholder; and then
all the substantial effects of their former condition,
as tenants paying labor rents, will have disappeared.
There is this material difference, however, be^
tween the past state of England, and the present
state of Germany. In England, the tenants who
on the disuse of the labor of the serf tenantry, took
charge of the cultivation of the domains of the pro-
prietors, were found on the land ; they were yeomen.
In Germany, the tenants of the domains are offsets
from the non-agricultural population, and their capi-
tal has been accumulated in employments distinct
from agriculture. In England, the source from
which the new tenantry proceeded, was large, and
their spread rapid. In Germany, the source is
smaller, and the creation of such a tenantry must
be the work of a much longer period. But the
change has been slow in both countries. Cultivation
by the labor of the manerial tenants was very long
before it finally disappeared from England : the legal
obligation to perform such labor has glided out of
sight almost within memory. So too in those parts
of Germany in which the progress of the relations
between the proprietors and the tenantry is left
to take its own course, it seems highly probable
that a very long period will yet elapse before labor
rents wholly disappear. Spontaneous changes in
Rents. 167
the habits of nations usually take place slowly, and ^°°^ ^•
, . Chap, vi,
occupy ages in their progress.
Gradual alterations in the mode of holding and Summary
, . . , , • 1 1 of Peasant
cultivating land, occupied by a peasant tenantry, Rents,
are not confined to the countries in which labor
rents prevail : metayers have, in some districts,
given place to capitalist tenants, and in others are
to be found in a state of transition; owning part
of the capital, paying sometimes a fixed quantity
of produce, sometimes a money rent, and preparing,
evidently, to take upon themselves all the burthens
and hazards of cultivation.
The two divisions of rents which we have just no-
ticed, comprise, jointly, but a small portion of the
earth. In them, as we have seen, a movement in
advance of the cultivators themselves has taken place,
which has proceeded from the insensible improvement
of their condition, and has ended in one, and is likely
to end in the other, in an alteration in the form of
rents. But in that greater portion of the earth
which remains to be noticed, there has been no
spontaneous movement in advance, and there is no
tendency to insensible change to be perceived.
Yet in a small division of that larger portion very
rapid alterations are in progress, in a different man-
ner, and from a different cause. And this constitutes
a third division of peasant rents, when classed
with reference to their tendencies to change.
In the Eastern part of Europe, the people
have never reached the means, or even the wish, of
elevating their condition: the mode of cultivation
and the relations between the proprietors and their
of Peasant
Rents.
168 Rents.
Book I. tenantry, might, apparently, as far as the exertions
^^*P' ^'' of the cultivators themselves are concerned, have
Summary continucd Unchanged while the earth lasts.
But, in these countries, the intellect and know-
ledge of the higher classes are far in advance of
the apathy, and stationary ignorance, of the lower.
The landed proprietors have been able to contrast
the condition of their country and their property,
with the state of more improved nations, and have
become animated by a zealous desire of altering the
condition of the peasantry, and the mode of conducting
agriculture. This common spirit has produced, and
is daily producing, a variety of changes; differing
in detail with the actual circumstances of different
districts, but having two common objects ; namely,
the elevation of the character and circumstances of the
present peasant cultivators, and the improvement of
agriculture on the domains held by the proprietors.
We have already seen, that the ultimate re-
sults of these various changes are yet problema-
tical; that whatever they may be, a long period
of time will probably elapse, before they are fully
developed.
Abstracting, however, altogether from the three
districts we have been considering, namely, that in
which peasant rents have been actually superseded,
that from which they are slowly disappearing, and
that from which an attempt is making forcibly to
expel them ; there still remains a large fourth dis-
trict: a vast unbroken mass, which no movement
from within, and no influence from without, have
yet brought to give signs of approaching change.
Rettts. 169
As the attention is naturally more caught by ®°*"^ '•
what is stirring and in motion, than by things of |_'
greater magnitude and importance which are inert Summary
^ ^ ..,.,, . .of Peasant
and stationary, the countries in which alterations in Rents,
the mode of conducting agriculture are in progress,
attract observation much more readily than those
which really present a more curious and interesting
phenomenon ; those in which the forms of occu-
pying the soil first adopted, and the systems and
relations of society founded on them, still prevail;
in which the face of society has undergone for cen-
turies as little alteration as the face of nature, and
men seem as unchangeable as the regions they
inhabit. The Ryots throughout Asia, and the
peasants in a very considerable portion of Europe,
are precisely what they have ever been. In spite
of the fluctuations natural to all human institu-
tions, and of the obvious disadvantages of their
systems of cultivation, still they endure, and are
likely to endure, unless some general movement
takes place on the part of the higher classes,
dragging the lower from their apathy and poverty ;
or some insensible improvement of their condition,
enables the lower classes themselves to begin a
forward progress.
Efforts of the higher classes, to introduce for-
cibly improvements into the condition of the lower,
are little likely ever to become general and system-
atic, over any great proportion of the earth's surface.
To suppose a general diffusion of political know-
ledge and philosophy, dispelling everywhere the slug-
gish dreams of selfishness, may be a pleasing reverie.
170 Bents.
^^\\ but can hardly afford any ground for rational an-
ticipation. The proprietors of the serfs of Eastern
o?p^^t ^"^^P® ^^^^ made, it is true, vigorous efforts, but
tt«nt8. they were stimulated by the intolerable burthens
and embarrassments which the old system brought
upon themselves, and nothing short of such a sti-
mulus would make such efforts general. The
Italian or Spanish nobles shew no symptoms of
being roused to take the lead in altering the terms
on which their estates are used: even the French
noblesse, before the revolution, were quite passive
under the evils and losses which the condition of
their metayer tenantry made common. The native
princes of Asia are little likely to be reformers
in the agricultural economy of their country. We
see how little the Anglo-Indian government has
effected in this respect.
But if the higher classes are little likely to
display general activity as reformers, then, as the
foundation of future improvements in the circum-
stances of the cultivators of a large part of the
world, there remain only such alterations for the
better, as may insensibly take place in the condi-
tion of the lower classes : such benefits as they may
win for themselves amidst the silent lapse of time
and every day events.
If this is seen, it must be perceived at once, that
the actual state of penury and misery, which makes the
cultivators helpless, and keeps them destitute, is the
great obstacle to the commencement of national im-
provement ; the heavy weight which keeps stationary
the wealth and number and civilization of a very
Rents. 171
large part of the eartli. I believe this, indeed, to bookI.
be only one case of a general truth, with which, chap. vi.
in our future progress, we shall become more fa- summary
miliar, that the degradation and abject poverty of^e^^J^^*
the lower classes, can never be found in combi-
nation with national wealth, and political strength.
But when the lower classes exist in the character
of peasant cultivators, this is more strikingly true
than elsewhere. In poor countries, of which the
non-agricultural population bears a very small pro-
portion to the husbandmen, it is usually in vain to
expect, that the additional capital and skill neces-
sary to effect great national improvements in cul-
tivation, can be generated any where but on the
land itself, and among its actual occupiers. If once,
therefore, the peasantry are so far reduced in their
circumstances and character, as to have neither the
means, nor, after a time, the wish or hope, to
acquire property and improve their condition ; the
state of agricultural production, and the relative
numbers of the non-agricultural and other classes
must be nearly stationary ; and, under such circum-
stances, all plans for the advancement of agriculture,
and improvement of the condition of the peasants,
which are not founded on the principle that the
means of the cultivator are to be, in the first placCy
enlarged, prove, almost necessarily, abortive. Laws
which confer upon him political rights and security,
are in themselves a mere dead letter, while poverty
weighs him down, and keeps him fast in his posi-
tion. The French metayers had long ceased to be
subject to the arbitrary power of the proprietors:
172 Rents.
Boojc I. tJjeij- persons and properties were, with some ex-
ceptions, as secure as those of any class in France ;
Summary yet their condition, and the character of their cul-
of Peasant •^. . .
Rents. tivation were, at best, stationary, and, in some dis-
tricts, certainly declining. It ivas the one great
object of the French economists, to substitute for
this class of cultivators, capitalists paying money
rents, and the fault of their plans, for accomplish-
ing their purpose, was this, that instead of re-
commending measures for the general transformation
of the metayers themselves into capitalists, they
founded all their hopes of effecting the change they
thought so all important, on the removal of the
metayers, and the gradual spread of capitalists, from
the districts in which they had already established
themselves. This was a process, which could only
have gone on at all under a very favourable state
of the markets for agricultural produce, and which,
it will be clear, must have taken ages to complete,
if we consider the small part of France occupied
by capitalists, and the very large proportion of her
surface tilled by metayers. The transformation of
the metayers themselves was less difficult, but it
was opposed by the moral obstacle we are speaking
of, which forms the real impediment to the progress
of improvement, under all the forms of peasant rent.
It required a distinct sacrifice of immediate income,
on the part of the proprietors or the government.
The metayers were oppressed by taxes, more than
by rent : the share of the landlord in the produce
had never been increased ; but the exactions of go-
vernment from the tenant's portion, had reduced him
Rentit. 1 73
to the state of misery which Tiirgot describes. To Book r.
enable the cultivators then to amend their circum- '^'^'
stances, to accumulate, and ultimately to change their summary
form of holding, it was necessary to begin by lighten- ^nt&. ^
ing the actual pressure on them : to effect this, either
the government must have remitted part of its
taxes, or the proprietors have consented to pay
part of them, and to relinquish thus a part of
their own revenue. On the side of the state, pub-
lic necessity, partly real, and partly assumed by
ministers who did not foresee to what point they
were driving the population ; on the part of the
proprietors, what Turgot is pleased to call the illu-
sions of self interest ill understood, prevented such
a remission of the burthens of the peasantry as
might have enabled them to make a start in ad-
vance: they continued therefore poor, inefficient, sta-
tionary ; and the agricultural resources of the state
were stunted and stopt in their growth with the pea-
santry. In spite of the miseries of that revolution,
through which the freedom of the cultivators from
their ancient oppressions has been earnt, the re-
venues of the body of agriculturists have so in-
creased, that France consumes more than three
times the quantity of manufactured commodities she
did before the revolution, and her non agricultural
population has doubled. These facts tell at once
how much she lost in strength and wealth, by the
feebleness of the agricultural efforts of the peasantry
under the old regime. But convulsions like that
which in France destroyed the relations between
landlord and tenant, and converted a large portion
174 Rents-.
Book I. ^f ^|^g mctayers into small proprietors, are not to
'__' be counted on in the ordinary course of human
Summary affairs ; and when once either the exactions of
Rents. landlords, or of the state, or indeed any other
circumstances, have reduced a peasant tenantry to
penury, the same difficulty constantly opposes itself
to the commencement of improvement. No one is
willing to make, no one ordinarily thinks of making,
a direct sacrifice of revenue, for the purpose of aug-
menting their actual means ; and nothing short of
that will enable them to start. In India, the An-
glo-Indian government have been creditably ready
to give more security and more civil rights to their
Indian subjects than they before enjoyed; but
when it became a question of direct sacrifice of re-
venue, notwithstanding the clearest conviction in
their own minds, that the population would be in-
creased, cultivation improved, and the wealth and
resources of their territories rapidly multiplied, still
the exigencies of the government would not permit
them to remit the actual rents to the amount of
25 per cent., or 15 per cent., even to ensure all these
confessed ulterior advantages; and therefore they con-
cluded that the state of cultivation, and the poverty
of the tenantry must continue as they were\
From the same causes, the posterity of the
emancipated serfs of eastern Europe are shut out from
the possibility of forming a body of capitalist tenants,
fitted to take charge of the cultivation of the domains
of the proprietors. Personal freedom, hereditary pos-
' See Buchanan's edition of Smith, Appendix, p. ^.
I
Uents. 175
session of their allotments, rights and privileges in ^^°^ \
abundance, the landlords and sovereigns are willing
to grant ; and it would be extravagant to say these o" p^^^
grants are worth nothing : but that which is ne- ^°^^-
cessary to enable the peasants to profit by their
new position, that is, an immediate relaxation of
the pressure upon them, an increase of their reve-
nue, proceeding from a direct sacrifice of income
on the part of either the crown or the landlord, is
something much more difficult to be accomplished.
In Prussia, the rent charge fixed upon the serf, now
constituted a proprietor, forms, as we have seen,
one of the heaviest rents known in Europe. And
among the various schemes for improving the con-
dition of the peasantry, afloat in the east of Eu-
rope, I know but of one, that of the Livonian
nobility, in which a direct sacrifice of revenue on
the part of the landlords is contemplated as the
basis of the expected amelioration*.
It is unquestionably the actual penury of the
peasants, and the little which has been done to
enable them to take the first steps to emerge
from it, which have, in a great measure, frustrated
all the hopes of augmented wealth and improved
civilization, which have been entertained by the be-
nevolent reformers of the north. It is this too,
which has been the cause of the apathy with which
the peasant has received the gift of political rights.
2 In that instance, the tenant who before owed half his labor
to the landlord, is protected against the demand of more than
two days in the week, or one third.
176 Rents.
Booi I. and which has made the various boons bestowed
upon him almost nominal.
Summary Abstracting then from the efforts of landlords
of Peasant ^ i i i • ^ i i
Rents. or governments, and looking at the whole extent
of that part of the globe which is at present lan-
guishing under the inefficient efforts of a depressed
peasant tenantry, it appears that when once their
circumstances have become reduced and their poverty
extreme, nothing but a relaxation of the terms of
their contract with the landlord, or a diminution
of the burthens imposed by the state, can give them
an opportunity of making that first movement in
advance which must be the initiative of their new
career. The difficulty of procuring such a relax-
ation, arising often from the necessities or the
blindness, more rarely from the pure selfishness,
of the landlords or sovereigns, is the real cause of
the stagnation and inefficiency of the art of agricul-
ture, and of the duration of the present forms of
holding over a great part of the world. In the hands
of a peasantry thoroughly depressed, cultivation may
spread, but its powers will not increase ; the people
may multiply, but the relative numbers of the non-
agricultural classes will not become much greater;
and abstracting from the increase of gross numbers,
the wealth and strength of the population, and the
elements of political institutions, undergo no alter-
ation.
Such then, is the miserable cause which has
maintained the rude forms of primitive holding so
long and so extensively unchanged, and which
seems unhappily to promise them a long period
Rents. 177
of future dominion, over too many wide districts ^°°^ ';
of the earth. [_*
We may observe on some small spots, of which Summary
England is one, the effects of a different system. Rents.
Agriculture is further advanced towards perfection,
and hence arises a capacity of supporting much more
numerous non-agricultural classes, which afford
abundant and excellent materials for a balanced
form of government; hence too, intellect, know-
ledge, leisure, and all the indications and elements
of high civilization multiplied and concentrated.
Were the whole of the earth's surface cultivated
with like efficiency, how different would be the
aggregate of the commercial means, political insti-
tutions, the intellect and civilization of the inha-
bitants of our planet!
The advancing wealth of a body of peasantry
does not, however, always lead either to the per-
manent improvement of their own condition, or to
an alteration in the constituent elements of society,
or in the degree of its civilization. A rapid increase
of the numbers of the cultivators, and after a time
a peasantry equally poor as at first, and more nu-
merous, are sometimes the result of an augmentation
of the revenues of a peasant tenantry. More than
one favorable circumstance must concur, to make
the commencement of their prosperity a basis for a
general advance of the nation, and for the progressive
augmentation of its various elements of its strength
and civilization. What those circumstances are, we
shall have hereafter to observe, when examining the
causes, which at different stages, and in different
M
178 Rents.
Book I, positions of society, promote or retard improved
^^P- "• habits in the body of the people. At present it
Summary ^^ enough if we sec, that the long endurance and
oM'eaaant stationary state of peasant tenures over a great part
of the world, are mainly attributable to the state
of poverty in which the cultivators have so long
fpund themselves : — a state of poverty, which while
it lasts, effectually prevents any movements in ad-
vance from originating with the peasants themselves,
and which can only be relieved by such sacrifices
on the part of other classes, as they are rarely able
and willing to make.
While we have been reviewing the different
classes of peasant rents, those facts have been stu-
diously dwelt upon and reproduced, which shew that
improvement in the efficiency of agriculture, followed
by an increase of the territorial produce of a country,
and consequently of its general wealth and strength,
is the foundation on which a permanent and pro-
gressive increase in the revenues of the landed pro-
prietors can best sustain itself.
Strange opinions as to a necessary opposition
between the interests of the proprietors of the soil,
and those of the rest of the community and of the
state, have lately been current. The fallacy of these
it was thought would be more easily and more dis-
tinctly exposed by a simple exposition of facts, as
they exist in the world around us, than 'by follow-
ing those who have promulgated such opinions, into
a labyrinth of abstract argument. The dogmas al-
luded to are sufficiently familiar to all readers of
later writers on Political Economy. Their substance
Rents. 179
and their spirit may be collected from the following Book i.
passages. "The capacity of a country to support __^
*t
and employ laborers, is in no degree dependent Summary
" on advantageousness of situation, richness of soil, RentsT"
<(
t(
it
it
*{
it
*t
is
it
a
or extent of territory \" "It appears, therefore^
that in the earliest stages of society, and where
only the best lands are cultivated, no rent is ever
paid. The landlords, as such, do not begin to
share in the produce of the soil until it becomes
necessary to cultivate lands of an inferior degree
of fertility, or to apply capital to the superior
lands with a diminishing return. Whenever this
is the case, rent begins to be paid; and it con-
tinues to increase according as cultivation is ex-
" tended over poorer soils ; and diminishes according
as those poorer soils are thrown out of cultivation"."
An increase of rent is not, therefore, as is very
generally supposed, occasioned by improvements in
" agriculture, or by an increase in the fertility of
"the soil. It results entirely from the necessity
" of resorting, as population increases, to soils of
" a decreasing degree of fertility. Rent varies in
" an inverse proportion to the amount of produce
" obtained by means of the capital and labor em-
" ployed in cultivation, that is, it increases when
" the profits of agricultural labor diminish^ and
*^ diminishes when they increase^'' "The rise of
" rent is always the effect of the increasing wealth
" of the country, and of the difficulty of providing
' MaccuUoch's Principles of Political Economy, p. 3^7.
« Ibid. p. 282. 3 Ibid. p. 269.
M2
180 Rmts.
Book I. " for its augmented population. It is a symptom,
°"P'^' "but it is never a cause of wealth\" ''Nothing
Summary " cau raise rent, but a demand for new land of an
RentT"*"' " inferior quality, or some cause, which shall occa-
" sion an alteration in the relative fertility of the
"land already under cultivation*." "The interest
" of the landlord is always opposed to that of the
"consumer and manufacturer^." "The dealings be-
" tween the landlord and the public are not like
" dealings in trade, whereby both the seller and the
"buyer may equally be said to gain, but the loss
" is wholly on one side, and the gain wholly on the
"other*." "Rent then is a creation of value, but
" not a creation of wealth ; it adds nothing to the
"resources of a country, it does not enable it to
"maintain fleets and armies; for the country would
"have a greater disposeable fund if its lands were
" of a better quality, and it could employ the same
" capital without generating a rent. It must then
"be admitted, that Mr. Sismondi and Mr. Bu-
" chanan, for both their opinions were substantially
" the same, were correct, when they considered rent
" as a value purely nominal, and as forming no ad-
" dition to the national wealth, but merely as a trans-
" fer of value, advantageous only to the landlords,
"and proportionably injurious to the consumer*."
The utter fallacy of these opinions, when applied
to any class of peasant rents, has been shewn sepa-
* Ricardo's Political Economy, 2nd Edit. p. 62.
* Ibid. p. 518. 3 Ibid. p. 423.
* Ibid. p. 424. * Ibid. 2nd Edit. p. 501.
Rents. 181
rately for each class in the course of the remarks ®*** ';
which have already been made : viz. for labor rents, _^''
at p. 61., for metayers, at p. 105., for ryots, at p. 140., ^^^^
and for cottier rents at p. 153. R«""-
But let us for a moment picture to ourselves
the effects of an address, by a philosopher of this
school, to an assembly composed of sovereign pro-
prietors of territories occupied by ryots, and of
the landholders of countries cultivated by serfs,
metayers, or cottiers. He would assure them,
from Mr. MaccuUoch, that the extent and rich-
ness of the tracts of country they might own,
affected in no degree their power of supporting
and employing an industrious population : that in
the earliest stages of society (being those with which
they are the most familiar) no rents are ever paid:
that they only begin to be paid when it becomes
necessary to cultivate lands of an inferior degree of
fertility. He would further inform the landholders,
that no improvements of their income could ever
by possibility originate in improvements in agricul-
ture, or in an increased fertility of the soil. He
would tell them too, that every augmentation of
their rental must result entirely from the necessity
of resorting, as population increased, to soils of a
decreasing degree of fertility. That the decrepitude
of agriculture, and the prosperity of the owners of
the land, advanced always hand in hand ; that their
revenues must vary always in an inverse proportion
to the amount of produce obtained by means of the
capital and labor employed in cultivation, and that
their rents, therefore, would increase as the profits
1«2 Rents.
Booi I. of agricultural labor diminished, and would dimi-
__^* nish as the profits of agricultural labor increased.
Summary The tcachcr might next take Mr. Ricardo's for
RentT**" his text-book, and after enforcing his dogmas from
this parent source, he might proceed farther with his
revelations, and expound to his audience, that their
interests as landlords were always opposed to those
of the non-agricultural classes of the community,
that the increase of their share of the produce of
the soil was a creation of value but not a creation
of wealth; that such an increase added nothing to
the general stock of riches, nothing to the common
resources of the state, nothing to its ability to main-
tain its public establishments.
We may imagine surely the amazement of the
listening circle of landholders of various descriptions.
They would know that they were surrounded, as
their forefathers had been, by a peasant population
yielding a part of their produce or their labor, as
a tribute for the use of the ground from which they
raised their food, and to which they must cling or
die. The lords of the soil would feel therefore, that
their revenue, as landed proprietors, owed neither
its origin nor its continuance to the existence of
gradations in the qualities of land. They would
know that, as far as their experience had gone, with
improvements in agriculture, and with the increase of
the fertility of the soil, the amount of produce which
formed their annual rents had steadily increased, and
they would have found that they became wealthier
as the labor of their peasant tenantry produced more
from the earth, and that they became poorer as it
Rents. 183
produced less. It would be impossible for them to b««k i.
„ . • 1 J Chap. vi.
doubt, that their power of giving employment and
support to a population of laboring cultivators, de- Summary
pended mainly on the quantity and quality of the Rents,
land at their disposal. They could not shut their
eyes to the physical fact, that increasing produce
converted into increased rents, constituted a fresh
creation of material riches. They could only feel
bewildered, when they were told, that in the case
of such an increase, though there might be a cre-
ation of value, there could not be a creation of
wealth. They must be aware that the distribution
of their revenue was the direct source of the main-
tenance of the greater part of the non-agricultural
classes of the population amidst which they lived;
they could not hear, without astonishment, that the
increase of their revenue was a misfortune to those
classes. Finally, observing that in ryot monarchies
the fleets and armies of the state were wholly
maintained from the rents of the sovereign pro-
prietor, and that in serf and metayer countries,
rents always contributed more or less to similar
purposes; they would listen with amazement to the
doctrine, that the increase of the territorial reve-
nues of a state, added in no case any thing to
its public strength, or to its ability to maintain
its military establishments.
It is difficult to imagine, that among a circle
full of such recollections our lecturer would make
converts. His audience would be apt to believe,
that the philosopher they were listening to must
have fallen from some other planet : that the scene
184 RenU.
Book I. of his experience must have differed widely from
^^^' ^' the scenes of theirs, and that it was quite impos-
Summary sible, the various propositions he was endeavouring
o^^sant ^^ impress upon them, could have been derived
from a review of the facts with which they were
daily familiar.
In truth, it is not easy to read any of the pro-
ductions of this school of writers, without seeing,
that their system as to rent, is derived exclusively
from an examination of the class of farmers' rents.
And this class (however interesting to us as English-
men) has already been stated not to extend itself
over one-hundredth part of the cultivated surface of
the earth. We shall presently, in examining that
particular division of rents, have occasion to shew,
that the writers we have been quoting and their fol-
lowers, have been not less hasty and erroneous in
deducing principles from the narrow class of facts
before their minds, than they have been rash in
attempting to apply those principles to the expla-
nation of the phenomena connected with rent, over
that vast portion of the surface of the globe to
which their facts are obviously and utterly inap-
plicable.
We leave now then those primitive tenures, which
decide the lot of that large portion of the human
race, which produces its own food with its own
hands from the soil, and turn to trace the reve-
nues of the landed proprietors when another class of
agriculturists have taken possession of the task of
cultivation, on terms different in themselves and
affected in their variations by different causes.
185
CHAP. VII. SECT. I.
Farmers' lienU. Introduction.
The rents we are about to examine, offer at Book i.
first sight, it must be confessed, a less attractive ^J^ j '
field of investigation than those which we have left.
We have no longer to consider rents as mainly Fiji's!"
determining by their forms and their results the
destinies of nations. Those now before us can only
exist when the most important relations of the dif-
ferent classes of society have ceased to originate in
the ownership and occupation of the soil. When
a race of capitalists have made their appearance,
to take charge of the varied industry of a popu-
lation, and advance from their own funds the wages
of its labor, property in land, and the forms of
tenancy it may give birth to, no longer influence
in the first degree, either the springs of govern-
ment, or the constituent elements of society. The
composition of the community becomes more com-
plicated, other interests and other sources of power
mingle their forces to determine the character and
condition of a people, and affect the detail of all
their multiplied connexions. Even in this state of
things, however, that cannot be other than an im-
portant attempt, which seeks to discover the man-
ner in which the revenues of the landed class swell
and enlarge themselves with the progress of the
community, so as to preserve some proportion with
the growing wealth of the body of the people.
Fanners'
Rents.
186 Rents.
Book I. But the examination of the various causes which
Sect, T ^ff'sct the progress of rents at this more advanced
period of a people's existence, is 7iot merely inte-
resting in itself In the present peculiar state of
public opinion on these subjects, such an examina-
tion can hardly fail to throw a useful light on other
divisions of the subject of the "distribution of the
national wealth." It will disencumber, for instance,
of many false facts and erroneous opinions, our future
examination of the course of profits and wages in
the more advanced stages of society. It will tend
to remove a common, though strange and painful
belief, as to some necessary connexion between the
progress of the mass of rents and a gradual decrease
in the national power of providing food for increas-
ing numbers. It will (incidentally) help to explain
the mutations which take place in the relative num-
bers and influence of the agricultural and non-agri-
cultural classes. These, and similar results, which
will present themselves in the course of the enquiry
on which we are about to enter, will, in a degree
compensate, it must be hoped, for the rather dry
^nd abstract nature of some of the calculations and
reasonings which must be employed.
Origin of Farmers' Rents.
That system of cultivation by peasants, which
we have been examining, and the various relations
between the landlords and the husbandmen to which
it gives birth, have been succeeded on particular
spots of the globe, slowly and partially, by a dif-
Rents. 187
ferent mode of managing agriculture, and the effect ^^"*^ ..
of this change on rents we have now to trace. scct. i.
After a certain progress in civilization and wealth,
the wages of the laboring class consist no longer of r^Z!""
a revenue which they themselves extract from the
earth ; food accumulates in the hands of capitalists
(or persons using their accumulated stock to make
a profit from it) in sufficient quantities to enable
them to advance the laborer his maintenance during
the progress of his various tasks ; they receive the
produce of those tasks when completed, and the
great essential step has then been taken, which con-
fers on a dass of men distinct from both landlords
and laborers, the management of the national in-
dustry.
This change usually begins with the non-agri-
cultural classes ; it is the artizans and the handi-
craftsmen who first range themselves under the
management of capitalists ; and to this point most
nations, which have any pretensions to civilization,
have advanced. The case is different with the cul-
tivators. Among some of the most polished people
of the globe, and over the greater part of its sur-
face, the agricultural laborers are themselves the
managers of agriculture : their wages, as we have
seen, never subsist in any other character than that
of a revenue of their own, and they exert and direct
their labor at their own discretion.
There are, however, districts of very small com-
parative extent, in which both the agricultural and
other laborers are fed and employed by capitalists.
These capitalists receive of course the produce of
188 Renfs.
Book 1. ^\^q \ahoT they maintain, and are responsible to the
'Jhap. vii.
Sect. 1.
*^ "^ owner of the soil for its stipulated rent.
Farmers'
fients.
One of the immediate consequences of this change
is the power of moving at pleasure the labor and
capital employed in agriculture, to other occupations.
While the tenant was himself a laboring peasant,
forced, in the absence of other funds for his main-
tenance, to extract it himself from the soil, he was
chained to that soil by necessity ; and the little stock
he might possess, since it was not sufficient to pro-
cure him a maintenance unless used for the single
purposes of cultivation, was virtually chained to the
soil with its master. But when the employers of
the laborers hold in their hands an accumulated
fund equal to their support, this dependance on the
soil is broken: and unless as much can be gained
by employing the working class on the land, as from
their exertions in various other employments, which
in such a state of society abound, the business of
cultivation will be abandoned.
Rent, in such a case, necessarily consists merely
of surplus profits ; that is, of all that can be gained
by employing a certain quantity of capital and labor
upon the land, more could be gained by it in any
other occupation.
Severance of the Connection between Rent and
Wages.
Rents thus constituted, cease at once to decide
the amount of wages. While obliged to extract
his own food from the earth, the quantity of pro-
duce which the laborer retained, the amount, that
Renh. 1 8y
is, of his real wages, depended, we liave seen, mainly Book i
on the contract made with the proprietor. *^\^^^ J"'
When the engagement of the laborer is with
a capitalist, this dependance on the landlord is dis- J^^^s*^"
solved, and the amount of his wages is determined
by other causes. These we shall hereafter trace ; but
the termination of the influence of rents on wages,
is an era in the progress of both, too marked to
be passed in silence. It is this circumstance which
mainly distinguishes the agricultural laborers of
England from those of the rest of the world. For
if we except Holland and the Netherlands, Eng-
land is the only country in which the system of
rents we are about to examine, prevails exclusively,
or even principally.
SECTION II.
Different Modes in which Farmers' Rents may increase.
When rents consist of surplus profits, there are Book i.
three causes from which the rent of a particular ^^^p"'-
spot of ground may increase. First, an increase of
the produce from the accumulation of larger quan- ^-3"^^^^$'°^
tities of capital in its cultivation ; Secondly, the ^^""'•
more efficient application of capital already employed ;
Thirdly, (the capital and produce remaining the
same) the diminution of the share of the produc-
ing classes in that produce, and a corresponding in-
crease of the share of the landlord. These causes
may combine in different proportions in the aue:-
190 Rents.
Book I. mciitation of the rents of a country cultivated by
Chap. vii. capitalists, but when the distinct power and mode
of operation of each are once understood, their
Increase of \q\i^i action will bc casily calculated.
Farmers " •'
Kents.
On the Progress and Effects of a Rise of Rents
from an Increase of Produce, caused hy the
Use of more Capital in Cultivation.
In thinly peopled and rude countries, the quan-
tity of labor and capital employed in the cultiva-
tion of the soil, is usually small when compared
with the extent of ground occupied. Wide natural
pastures on which a few cattle pick up a precarious
living, ploughed lands worked to exhaustion, and
then carelessly rested, rude implements, scanty build-
ings, deficient fencing and draining, these circum-
stances all mark the agriculture of Poland or Hun-
gary, and very many other countries, now, as they
did that of England in other days. As the num-
bers and skill of the people increase, the modes
of cultivation and the face of the country change :
the districts devoted to forests or rough pasturage
shrink, the ground is either converted into rich
meadows, or ploughed up, and made, by a judicious
rotation of crops, to combine with and strengthen
the general system of the farmer. The portion of
the old cultivated lands once devoted to leys and
fallows is carefully attended to, becomes less in
extent, and has its productiveness increased by being
made to bear green crops while resting from com.
While this change is in progress, the cattle main-
Rents. 191
tained for draft or slaughter multiply rapidly : better ^°^^ ^;
and more numerous implements, drains, fences and gect. 2.
buildings make their appearance : all, and perhaps
more than all, the labor and capital which once Farmers'"^
loosely occupied 500 acres, are now concentrated for ^^"''''•
the more complete tillage of 100.
We have to examine what must be the effects of
this progressive increase of capital on the surplus
profits or rents realized on each portion of the soil.
Corn may be selling either at a monopoly price,
that is, at a price which more than pays the costs and
profits of those who grow it under the least favourable
circumstances ; or at such a price as will only repay
their common profits. Let us first consider it, as sell-
ing at a monopoly price. Then, abstracting from all
difference of fertility in the soils cultivated, the rent
will consist of that portion of the price of the produce,
which exceeds the cost of production, and the ordi-
nary rate of profit on that cost. Let 10 per cent, be
the ordinary rate of profit. If the corn produced
on any spot of land by £l00. sold for £ll5., the
rent would be £5. If in the progress of improve-
ment the capital employed on the same land were
doubled, and the produce doubled, then £200. would
yield £230., and £220. being capital and profits,
the surplus, or £lO., would be rent, and the rent will
be doubled. If corn, then, is at a monopoly price,
increased produce obtained by increased capital (prices
remaining the same) may increase the rents, in pro-
portion to the increased capital laid out.
Such a case as this, though very unusual, may
occur ; and therefore must not be omitted. In small
192 Rents.
Book I.
Chap. vii.
communities corn may be constantly at a monopoly
Sea. 2. price. It is so probably in the Isle of Jersey, where
there is always a pressing demand for raw produce,
Increase of,.,. . ^ -nTi
Fanners' which lu war kept up rents to ±,14. per li,nghsh acre,
and in peace to £6. or £7. In larger countries too,
though possessing much uncultivated soil, corn may,
for a long period of time, be at a monopoly price, pro-
vided the increase of population keeps steadily ahead
of the increase of tillage.
It must be confessed, however, that a continuous
monopoly price of corn is a circumstance which,
though not impossible, is very unusual in countries of
considerable extent and great variety of soil. In
such countries, if the produce of the soils in cultiva-
tion sells for more than will realize the usual rate of
profit on the capital employed, other lands are culti-
vated ; or more capital laid out on the old lands, till
the cultivator finds he can barely get the ordinary
profit on his outlay. Then, of course, tillage will
stop, and in such countries, therefore, com is usually
sold at a price, not more than sufficient to replace the
capital employed under the least favorable circum-
stances, and the ordinary rate of profit on it : and the
rent paid on the better soils is then measured by the
excess of their produce over that of the poorest soil
cultivated by similar capitals. If ^ be a soil which
produces to a quantity of capital (w) 10 quarters, and
pays the ordinary profits on stock ; then B, if to
the same capital (w) it yields 12 quarters, will have
the price of two quarters as surplus profits, and will
pay it as rent. Let us suppose a country then, pos-
sessing gradations of soil, increasing in fertility from
Rents. 193
A to Z, of which A returns to £ 100. £ 110., and the ko^*^ I;
others progressively to Z, more than £llO. This sc«.2"
will represent the real position of the soils cultivated
in such extensive countries. In the progress of num- J"amers'°^
bers, of wealth and knowledge, let us suppose a rude ^^^^^'
and unskilful mode of cultivation gradually giving
place to a better; and additional capital and labor
accumulating for the more complete culture of every
class of soil : and then let us observe what would be
the necessary effects upon rents (or surplus profits) of
this general accumulation of capital, in the cultiva-
tion of soils of unequal goodness.
Let A have been formerly cultivated with £lOO.
yielding annually £llO., £lO. being the ordinary
profits on stock : and B with £100. yielding £115. :
and Cwith £100. yielding £120-: and so on to Z.
As all above £110. on each would be surplus profits.,
or rent, the rent of B would be £5., and that of C
£lO., &c. &c. In some indefinite time let each of
these qualities of soil be cultivated with a capital of
£200., and their relative fertility remaining as before,
let their produce be proportionably increased, A will
produce £220., ^£230., C£240. All above £220.
on each will now be surplus profits, or rent. The
rent of -B, therefore, will have become £lO., that of
C £20. That is> the rent of each will have doubled. It
is in this manner that the increasing amount of capital
employed on the land of an improving country ne-
cessarily elevates rents (or the surplus profits) on
all the better soils; and this quite independently
of alterations, either in the relative fertility of the
soils cultivated, or in the amount of produce obtained
N
194 Rents.
Book I. by the application of given quantities of capital to
ap. vn. ^1^^ inferior soils.
Sect. 2.
It may be suggested, perhaps, that though we
Famm'°^ admit the additional capital employed on the worst
^^^ soil, to yield the same profit as that with which it
was originally cultivated, (a circumstance of which
we shall presently examine the probability), still
it is not probable that the better lands will yield a
larger produce to the additional capital used, exactly
proportioned to the superiority of their original
fertility. This may be so, and a rise of rents
will still take place, but it will be different in
amount.
They yielded to the first £100. laid out as
capital, ^ £110., 1? £115., C £l20. Let them
yield to the second, A £110., B £113., C £118.
All above £110. of the additional produce will be
rent, B will then pay £3. additional rent, C £8.
The relative fertility of the different soils will be
changed. The superiority of the better soils will
have become less, if considered relatively to the
whole mass of capital now employed on each; but
still rents will rise generally : not so much, how-
ever, it will be observed, as if the relative fertility
of the various soils, after the additional outlay on
all, remained precisely the same. It is probable,
that in i?i06t instances the actual rise will accord with
the first calculation ; and that the several additions
will be proportioned to the original goodness of the
soils. If B and C had a certain superiority over ^,
when cultivated in rough pastures, corn crops, and
fallows, then when the pasture and fallows of each
Rents. 195
have, by the application of more labor and capital, ^°°^ .V
•/• • 1 • Chap. vu.
been covered with pulse, roots, or artificial grasses, it sect. 2.
is probable that the superior productiveness of each
will continue to be in about the same proportion. Farmers'
All, however, that is necessary to effect a rise of rents
over the surface of a country possessing soils of
unequal goodness, is this : that the better soils
should yield to the additional capital employed
upon them in the progress of cultivation, some-
thing more than the soils confessedly inferior to
them ; for then while means can be found of em-
ploying fresh capital on any soil between the ex-
tremes A and Z, at the ordinary rate of profit,
rents will rise on all the . soils superior to that par-
ticular soil.
Once more, then, the general accumulation of
the capital employed in cultivation, while it aug-
ments the produce of all gradations of soils, some-
what in proportion to their original goodness, must
of itself raise rents ; without reference to any progres-
sive diminution in the return to the labor and capital
employed, and, indeed, quite independently of any
other cause whatever. We know that a great in-
crease in the amount of capital employed in agri-
culture, is observable in the progress of all improving
countries, as it has taken place in our own. This
cause, therefore, must necessarily have a very con-
siderable share in producing the rise of rents, which
ordinarily takes place in all countries increasing in
riches and population.
This might reasonably be expected: a general
increase of the produce of the land, following the
V '>
196 Rents.
^^^ ^'. application of additional capital and labor to its
g^^' 2. more perfect cultivation, seems a very natural and
obvious cause of a rise of rents.
F^m' It has, however, been very positively denied, that
^^^ rents can ever be thus increased ; even in the strong-
est case we have put, that of an undiminished return
to additional capital, and an unaltered proportion
in the produce of the different soils.
It has been stated, indeed, that such an undi-
minished return to the additional capital bestowed
upon the old land is impossible from the laws of
nature ; and that if possible, it would effectually keep
down rents : that all improvements in agriculture
must check their progress, and so be prejudicial
to the interests of the landlords : and that nothing'
can raise rents but some cause which shall alter the
relative fertility of the lands in cultivation. These
are the well known opinions of Mr. Ricardo. That
gentleman having adopted as the basis of a very com-
plicated and ingenious system of the distribution of
wealth, the single fact of a progressive and invari-
able diminution to the returns of agricultural labor,
decided that this was the cause, and the sole cause,
of every general rise of rents which could take
place in the progress of nations. It became ne-
cessary, then, for him to shew that every other sup-
posed source of increasing rents was imaginary, and
among them the one we have been stating, namely,
a generally increased produce, from the employment
of greater quantities of capital in cultivation. Mr.
Kicardo- accordingly first declares : " That with every
*' increased portion of capital employed upon the
Rents. 197
*' land, there must be a diminished rate of produc- book i.
"tion\" ^^"P-^"-
This proved, it would of course be impossible that
the produce should increase, as we have supposed it to Jpcrease of
increase, in the same proportion as the capital laid R«nts.
out. But he further declares, that if it could so
increase, no rise of rents would follow : he says :
" If capital could be indefinitely employed upon the
" old land without a diminished return, there could
" be no rise of rent*^." " Improvements in agri-
" culture, which are common to all lands, and do
" not much disturb the relative proportions which
** before existed between them, cannot raise rent,
" because nothing can raise rent but a demand for
" new land of an inferior quality, or some cause that
" shall occasion an alteration ii) the relative fertility
"of the land already under cultivation." "Rent
" invariably proceeds from the employment of an
" additional quantity of labor, with a proportionally
" less retiu-nl"
The opinion that the powers of agricultural
capital necessarily decrease, as the quantity employed
increases, is the one of which, perhaps, it is the most
important to see the unsoundness: if no additional
produce could ever be obtained from the soil, without
a diminished return to the capital and labor em-
ployed, such a law of production would materially
influence, no doubt, though in different directions,
the fortunes of all classes of society. And if there
' Ricardo, 3rd edit. p. ^S. ^ Ibid. 2nd edit. p. 55.
3 Ibid. 2nd edit. pp. .518, Sip.
198 Rents.
Book I. be HO such law, those who have set out with assuming
Sea. 2" ^^^ existence and unceasing action and influence,
must necessarily have been led into very serious
fSS"^ mistakes as to the real causes of that gradual in-
^^^ crease of the revenues of the landed proprietors
which is usually seen to keep pace with the pro-
gress of the art of cultivation.
Mr. Ricardo's views of the necessary decrease in
the return to every successive portion of the capital
and labor bestowed on the same land, are put very
distinctly and forcibly by Mr. Mill, whose work, in
many of its parts, is a condensed exposition of Mr.
Ricardo's opinions.
" A piece of land,'^ Mr. Mill says, in the com-
mencement of his Section on rent\ " may be capable
" of yielding annually 10 quarters of corn, or twice
" 10, or 3 times 10. It yields, however, the first 10,
"with a certain quantity of labor, the second 10 not
" without a greater, the third 10 with a greater still,
and so on ; every additional 10 requiring to its
production a greater cost than the 10 which pre-
" ceded it. This is well known to be the law, ac-
" cording to which, hy a greater expenditure of
" capital, a greater produce is obtained, from the
*' same portion of land'^
The law thus unhesitatingly described by Mr.
Mill, and as unhesitatingly reasoned upon by Mr. Ri-
cardo and all his followers, as the sole basis of their
theory of rent, is one, the existence of which it re-
quires, at least, strong facts to prove. If every
1 Mill's Elements, Jrtl edit. p. iij).
Rents. 199
successive addition to the produce of the soil requires i^ook i.
Chap. vii.
Sect. 2.
additional cost to obtain it, then improved culti- *p-^"-
vation and increased crops are, really, only steps in
the declension of the powers of agriculture. Farmers'"^
The average corn produce of England at one time ^™'®'
did not exceed 12 bushels per acre; it is now about
double. Are we to believe that there is a law of
nature, which makes it inevitable that the cost of
getting 24 bushels from one acre is really more than
the cost of getting the same quantity from two ?
Very obvious considerations point, surely, to an
opposite conclusion. The more contracted space in
which the operations of the husbandry, which pro-
duces the 24 bushels, are now carried on, must give
some advantages^ and save some expense ; the fencing,
draining, seed, harvest work, and even tillage to
some extent, must surely be less when confined to an
acre, than when spread over two. The ancient agri-
culturists were certainly of this opinion, as I believe
the moderns are. " Nee dubium," says Columella,
" quin minus rcddat laxus ager non recte cultus
" quam angustus eximie^r
That there is a certain point, beyond which hu-
man labor cannot be employed upon a limited spot
of ground, without a diminished return to its ex-
ertions, must be admitted at once. But in the pro-
gress of those improvements in the art of cultivation,
by which its most profitable amovmt of produce is
approached, it may be very possible, that every suc-
cessive portion of the capital and labor concentrated
' Columella, Lib. I. c. 3.
200 Rents.
Book I. ^^ ^^ hxidi, may be more economically and eflficiently
Sect. 2. applied than the last.
Such a law would be at least as probable a priori
xUckslS/c of*
Farmers' as that which supposcs that heavier crops, and less
productive cultivation, are inseparable.
If indeed we were to confine our views to some
very minute spot of ground, to a square yard, for
instance, we might for an instant be misled into ac-
quiescing in the plausibility, at least, of this un-
pleasant version of the laws of nature. When such
a spot had been weeded, and dug, and drained, and
manured, as well as our present knowledge made
possible, it might seem that more labour bestowed
upon it must be more feebly rewarded.
Even as to such a limited spot we might possibly
be mistaken : but when we include in our view larger
districts, such as are usually cultivated under the di-
rection of one person, the case becomes altogether
different ; because we must then take into calculation
the increased power gained by increased skill in the
combination and succession of different crops, and in
the modes of consuming them, and making them
react on the fertility of the farms.
It has already been stated, that in the course
which agriculture has ordinarily followed, from rude-
ness towards perfection, men have began by devoting
a considerable portion of the ground to pasture, while
another has been kept ploughed for grain crops, and
rested by occasional fallows, or leys, as the exhausted
fields were once called in England, when abandoned
to their natural produce for a time, though destined
to be ploughed up again.
Rents. 201
Let us suppose 1000 acres to have been thus boo*^ i-
treated ; that the demand for human food increases, ^ll g"'
and that it becomes necessary by more laborious cul-
tivation, to force the powers of the soil. ivmera "'^
The measures this has ordinarily led to, have been ^"^^•
the breaking up the whole, or a portion of the pas-
ture land, covering the fallows and leys with roots,
artificial grasses, and various green crops ; feeding
an increased number of cattle, with the produce of
ploughed ground, producing thus more animal ma-
nure, keeping the powers of the earth in more con-
stant and vigorous action, and obtaining thus from
every part of the farm a more abundant produce.
While these changes are in progress, much more
capital and labor must be bestowed upon the culti-
vation of 1000 acres. Now how does the fundamental
proposition in the theory of rent, promulgated by
Messrs. Ricardo, Mill and Macculloch, apply to the
state of things here described ?
As the national agriculture thus becomes in the
progress of ages more complete and scientific, may
not the increased labor and capital used be requited
at least as amply as the smaller quantity before em-
ployed, under a more ignorant or indolent system.
Must every additional 10 bushels of corn necessarily
be obtained by a larger comparative outlay ? Is there
really a law of nature which makes this result in-
evitable? Surely it is neither impossible nor im-
probable, that the earth, under an improving system
of husbandry, may disclose powers of rewarding as
bountifully the skilful and efficient industry bestowed
upon her, as she did the languid and ignorant ope-
Increase of
Fanners'
202 Rents.
Book I. rations of a less laborious cultivation. There is an
Sea. 2" indefinite point, no doubt, beyond which agricultural
production cannot be forced without a loss ; but we
must not, therefore, conclude, that man with increas-
Rents. jjjg knowledge and means, cannot advance from his
rudest essays towards this indefinite point, without
sustaining at each step a loss of productive power,
and that he who extracts 40 bushels of wheat from
an acre of ground, is necessarily worse paid than he
who extracts 30 ; and he who extracts 30, worse than
he who extracts 10. The stature of man is limited :
there is a point beyond which we know that it would
be idle to expect that a human being should increase
in height, without decreasing in strength and energy.
If we were to argue, thence, that every inch added to
a young person's stature in his progress to matu-
rity must be followed by increasing debility, we
should argue very ill: but not worse surely than
those, who having observed that in the culture of
the earth there is a point beyond which fresh labor
bestowed must produce feebler results ; lay it down
as a law of nature, that no additional labor can at
any time be bestowed upon the earth, without a
return, less in proportion, than that yielded to the
labor before applied.
We may reject, therefore, as fanciful, the doc-
trine of Mr. Ricardo and his school, when they
would teach us, that " with every increased por-
" tion of capital employed upon the land there
" will be a decreased rate of production." And
we may proceed to consider those positions in which
they maintain, that even supposing them wrong
Rents. 203
in this, and admitting that capital may continue book i.
to accumulate with undiminished power on the lands ^' g"'
cultivated, still no augmentation of rents could pos-
sibly proceed from such a cause. Farmers"^
These opinions are embodied in the following ^^"'^•
passages : — " If capital could be indefinitely employed
" without a diminished return on the old land, there
* could be no rise of rent, for rent invariahly pro-
" ceeds from the employment of an additional quan-
" tity of labor, with a proportionally less return \"
The truth of the last of these tv^o propositions
depends evidently upon that of the first, of which we
shall presently see the value. Mr. Ricardo after-
wards states that *' Improvements in agriculture, and
" in the division of labor are common to all land,
" they increase the absolute quantity of raw produce
*' obtained from each, but do not much disturb the
*' relative proportions which before existed between
" them." And thence he argues that such improve-
ments will not raise rents, because " Nothing can
" raise rent, but a demand for new land of an inferior
" quality, or some cause which shall occasion an
" alteration in the relative fertility of the land al-
" ready under cultivation"." To try the soundness of
these positions, let us take a case where all the cir-
cumstances of which they affect to state the effects
concur, that is, — Where more capital is employed
upon the land without a diminished return, and
where this additional capital, increasing the absolute
quantity of raw produce obtained from each gradation
* Ricardo, 2nd edit. p. 55. ^ Ibid. 2nd edit. pp. 518, 51.9.
204 Rents.
Book I. of soil, does not disturb the proportions which before
g^^' ^' existed between their produce. Let A represent a
class of land which returns only the ordinary profits
F^m '"^ of stock at 1 0 per cent, and pays no rent. Let B,
^^'s- C and D represent other portions of better land, also
cultivated with a capital of £100., and let their pro-
duce be as follows :
A B a D
£110. £115. £120. £130.
All above £110 in each, will be surplus profits, or
rent, of which rent B will pay £5,, C£lO., and
D £20. Next let the capital employed on each be
doubled, without a diminished return, and without
disturbing the proportion between the produce of
each, or altering their relative fertility, their produce
will be as follows :
A B c D
£220. £230. £240. £260.
All above £220. in each will be surplus profit^ or
rent, of which B will pay £lO., C £20., and Z) £40.
That is, the rent of each will be doubled.
And it is clear, that with every additional portion
of capital, laid out with similar effect, rents will in-
crease proportionably, that is, will double, when ca-
pital is doubled, treble, when it is trebled, quadruple,
when it is quadrupled, and so on indefinitely, as long
as capital can be employed upon the old land without
a diminished return, and without altering the relative
fertility of the soils cultivated.
It is sufficiently evident, that abstracting from
all other causes of increase, rents do, and must rise
in this manner, in all improving countries, as more
Rents. 205
and more capital is invested in agriculture. We Bo^k r.
have seen, however, that it is not essential to the *^*''"*
Sect. 2.
xise that the proportion between the fertility of
the soils should be exactly stationary \ FarmMs'
From his general train of reasoning, one would ^^'^^^'
be tempted to believe, that Mr. Ricardo, in deny-
ing that the accumulation of capital could ever
raise rents, without some decrease in its productive
powers, had wholly overlooked the necessarily un-
equal effects of additional capital on soils of unequal
fertility : and had assumed in his own mind, that the
effect produced on the worst soils by all the addi-
tional capital employed on agriculture, would equal
the effect it produced on the best. On the present
occasion, however, he committed no such oversight,
he himself has added the supposition, that their pro-
duce should be proportionally/ increased, and his
denial of the necessary effects of this unequal in-
crease on rents is therefore the more unaccountable.
Another assertion we may observe is, that 7iothing
can raise rents but a demand for new land of an in-
ferior quality, or some cause which shall occasion an
alteration in the relative fertility of the land already
cultivated. This opinion is certainly not less erro-
neous, than that which decides on the entire ineffi-
ciency of an indefinite accumulation of capital, in
raising rents, but it is more easily accounted for.
Mr. Ricardo, overlooking altogether the peasant
tenantry, which occupy ninety-nine hundredths of
the globe, had persuaded himself that the existence
> See p. 194.
i>06 Remits.
i^K I. of a gradation of soils of different fertility was the
Se«! 2' ^"V cause, why rents ever existed at all. It was
not unnatural, therefore, that he should conclude,
ISm'"^ that an alteration in their relative fertility was
^"'*- the sole cause of every variation of rents : but even
admitting for a moment the correctness of these
premises, this conclusion would be fallacious. If
we suppose the existence of a gradation of soils to
be (what it most certainly is not) the sole cause of
the payment of rents, it would still be untrue, that
" nothing can raise rents but some cause which shall
" occasion an alteration in the relative fertility of the
" lands cultivated." If we take it for granted with
Mr. Ricardo, that a difference in the natural fertility
of soils is the sole origin of rent ; still it is the ab-
solute difference of their products which must always
determine the amount of the rents paid at any given
time, and this difference, and consequently the
amount of rents may be increased indefinitely, while
the proportion between the several products of all
the soils cultivated to equal quantities of capital,
that is, while their relative fertility, remains unal-
tered.
If abstract numbers, bearing a certain proportion
to each other, are multiplied by the same number,
we know that though the proportion borne by the
products to each other, will be the same as those of
the original numbers ; yet the difference between
the amounts of the several products, will increase
at each step of the process. If 10, 15, 20, be mul-
tiplied by 2 or 4, and become 20, 30, 40, or 40, 60,
80, their relative proportions will not be disturbed :
Rents. 207
80 and 60 bear the same proportion to 40, as Book i.
20 and 15 do to 10: but the differences between ^^l^^'
the amount of their products will have increased
T ^
at each operation, and from being 5 and 10, be- yIxt^s:^
come 10 and 20, and then 20 and 40. ^^"*^-
So if soils have a relative fertility, which is in-
dicated by their producing to a capital of £l00,
respectively £110., £ll5. and £l30., and then the
capital employed be doubled, and the produce doubled,
their produce will become £220., £230. and £260. ;
and the diiference between the amount of their pro-
ducts, or their rents would be doubled, though their
relative fertility remained precisely what it was. Al-
though, therefore, the difference between the rela-
tive fertility of soils were the sole cause of rents,
it would not follow, that nothing could raise rents
but some cause which altered the relative fertility
of the lands cultivated, since any cause would raise
rents, which increased the amount of produce of
all, while it left their relative fertility untouched;
and just such a cause would be that indefinite in-
crease of capital on the old soils, without a dimi-
nished return, which Mr. Ricardo so stoutly declares,
would make it impossible, that the revenue of the
landed proprietors could ever increase at alP.
Upon pushing this very simple arithmetical cal-
culation a little farther, it will be seen yet more
clearly, that Mr. Ricardo was utterly mistaken in
supposing, even on his own shewing, that an in-
creased difference in the relative fertility of soils
* See p. 206'.
208 Rents.
Book I. ^g^g essential to a rise of rents, since rents may
se"c^ 2.' clearly rise> even while the difference between the
relative fertility of the soils is diminishing; pro-
F^m'° vided the absolute quantity of produce in each class
^^^' is increasing. If £ 100. be employed on classes A,
B and C, with a produce of £llO., £ll5. and
£120., and subsequently £200., with returns of
£200., £228. and £235., the relative differences
of the products will have diminished, and the soils
will have approximated in fertility; still the differ-
ence of the amoiuitfi of their products will be in-
creased from £5. and £lO. to £8. and £l5., and
rents will have risen accordingly \ Improvements,
therefore, which tend to approximate tlie degrees
of fertility of the cultivated soils, may very well
raise rents, and that without the co-operation of
any other cause.
This process goes on often in practice. The tur-
nip and sheep husbandry, and tlie fresh capital em-
ployed to carry it on, produced a greater alteration
in the fertility of the poor soils, than in that of
the better; still it increased the absolute produce
of each, and, therefore it raised rents, while it dimi-
nished the differences in the fertility of the soils
cultivated.
We have attempted to shew, that increasing
produce from all the qualities of soil in a coun-
try, produced by the application of more capital and
labor, will necessarily raise rents in an extensive
^ For a similar calculation, see p. Ip*. I have let both
stand, it is important that they should be understood.
Rents. 209
country farmed by capitalists, from the unequal book i.
returns to that capital and labor on lands of un- sect! 2.
equal goodness: — that rents will thus be raised with-
out its being necessary to suppose any alteration Farmers'
in the relative fertility of the soils cultivated, any ^^°^"
resort to inferior soils, or any diminution in the
produce obtained by agricultural labor on the old
soils: and that there is no foundation whatever for
the opinion, that in every stage of such a process,
every portion of additional produce successively got
from the same lauds, must necessarily be obtained
by a less advantageous expenditure of labor and
capital.
Mr. Ricardo, however, is not only of opinion,
as we have seen, that increased produce so obtained
could never raise rents, but he asserts that it would
actually lower them, at least for a time ; that is, till
the only cause which he contends can ever possibly
raise rents, comes into play, and additional capital
is laid out with a diminished return^ either upon
fresh lands, or upon some portion of the old land.
The way in which he defends this rather startling
opinion, that increasing crops will be the cause of
decreasing rents, is this : he assumes, that if the
produce of the laud be increased while the popu-
lation is standing still, and the demand is sta-
tionary, some of the land will be thrown out of
employment; and the difference between the fer-
tility of the lands actually cultivated, will be dimi-
nished; a circumstance which in Mr. Ricardo's
system is invariably stated, as we have seen, to
O
210
Rents.
Book 1.
Chap. vii.
Sect. 2.
Increase of
Farmers'
Rents.
lead to a decrease of rents'. "If" he says, "a
' million of quarters of corn, be necessary for the
' support of a given population, and it be raised
' on land of the qualities of 1,2, 3, and if an im-
' provement be afterwards discovered, by which it
' can be raised on No. 1 and 2, without employing
' No. 3, it is evident that the immediate effect must
' be a fall of rent: for No. 2, instead of No. 3, will
' then be cultivated without paying any rent : and
' the rent of No. 1, instead of being the difference
'between the produce of No. 3 and No. 1, will be
' the difference only betw^een No. 2 and No. 1.
' With the same populatio?i and no more there can
' be no demand for any additional quantity of corn ;
' the capital and labor employed on No. 3 will be
* devoted to the production of other commodities
' desirable to the community, and can have no effect
' in raising rent, imless the raw material from which
' they are made cannot be obtained without employ-
' ing capital less advantageously on the land, in
' which case No. 3 must again be cultivated." This
passage contains the substance of the reasoning on
which Mr. Ricardo founds his frequently repeated
assertion, that agricultural improvements are always
detrimental to the landlords.
Now what would happen wliilc produce was for
some time slowly and steadily increasing, while
population and demand continued the same, and
no more, we need not trouble ourselves to enquire.
' Passages in note A.
Rent a. 211
It is a case, which it will he admitted on all hands ^°°^ '•
Ti 1 -\T • 1 • 1 • 1 Chap. vii.
IS never likely to occur. J\ either is this the case sect. 2.
put by Mr. Ricardo; he supposes a sudden spread
of improvement, by which, as by the stroke of a Farmers'
magic wand, two-thirds of the land of a country are '^""'"
made to produce as much as the whole did imme-
diately before, while the population continues the
same, and no more, in which case he supposes the
cultivation of one-third of the land would be un-
necessary, and cease, and that rents would fall over
the whole country.
It is only necessary to remember the slowly pro-
gressive manner in which agricultural improvements
are practically discovered, completed, and spread^
to perceive how very visionary this supposition of
Mr. Ricardo's really is. If two-thirds of the lands of
England should ever produce as much as the whole
does now, (an event extremely probable) we may be
quite sure that it will be by no sudden and magical
stride that the improvement will establish itself:
that the means of effecting it will be discovered in
small portions at a time, perhaps at considerable in-
tervals, and will be adopted into general practice
tardily, and we may almost predict, reluctantly and
suspiciously". In the mean time, population and
the demand for raw produce will not have been
^ The practice of ploughing light lands with two horses and
one man, and the alternate and convertible husbandry, the great
improvements of modern times, have been fully known for more
than half a century. If they spread themselves no faster than
they have done yet, another half century will elap'-.e before they
are adopted on all the lands fitted for them.
02
212 Rents.
^^ \- standing still. In tlic process by which increased
Sect. 2. supplies of food are produced for an increasing
population, we observe no such wide dislocations
Farniere'° bctwecn thc supply and demand, no such sudden
'^"'*' starts and jerks as Mr. Kicardo is driven to sup-
pose, in order to prove that all improvements in
agriculture are unfavorable to thc interests of thc
landlords. As the mass of the people slowly in-
crease, we see the gradual pressure of demand sti-
mulating the agriculturists to improvements, which
by an imperceptible progression of the supply, keep
the people fed. While these processes are going
on, every increase of produce, occasioned by thc
general application, to the old soils, of more capital,
acting upon them with unequal effect, according to
the differences of their original fertility, raises rents ;
and the interests of the landlords are at no moment
opposed to improvements, which while they increase
the mass of raw produce, are as favorable to the
augmentation of the revenues of the owners of the
soil, as they are essential to the well being of thc
people.
It may seem hardly necessary to state, that in-
creased rents, brought about in the manner we have
now been describing, constitute a portion of fresh
wealth created by the industry of the country, and
are an unquestionable and satisfactory evidence of
the general increase of its resources. It so happens,
however, tliat the same train of reasoning which has
led Mr. Ricardo and his school to deny that rents
can ever rise except from one cause (namely, thc
laying out capital upon some portion of land witli
Rents. 213
a less return, and the consequent diminution of Book r.
the share of the productive classes in all the rest,) ^^"p* *"•
has led them to maintain, as one of the consequences
of this doctrine, that a rise of rent is in all cases increase of
Farmers
a mere transfer of wealth already existing, never Rents,
a creation of it ; that it adds nothing to the resources
of a country; that it does not enable it to maintain
fleets and armies ; that it is a mere transfer of value
advantageous only to the landlord, and proportion-
ably injurious to the consumer. Supposing Mr. Ri-
cardo's opinion, as to the one exclusive cause of
every increase of rents, to be correct, then this doc-
trine must also be correct \ If the soils A^ B^ C
and Z), produce, A £\\0., B ^115., C d^lSO,
D £ 130. ; then the share of the producing classes
in each, being c£*110, A will pay no rent; and the
rents o^ B, C and D will be £ 5., £ 10., and £ 20.
respectively. If only one mode of raising the amount
of rents paid by these soils existed, namely, the re-
duction of the share of the producing classes from
1 Ricardo, 2nd Edit. pp. 499, 500, 501. "One of these
" errors (he is speaking of some supposed errors of Mr. Mai-
" thus,) lies in supposing rent to be a clear gain and a new
" creation of riches." " Rent then is a creation of value, but
" not a creation of wealth ; it adds nothing to the resources
" of a country : it does not enable it to maintain fleets and
" armies," &c. &c. The reader will have observed already, how
utterly fallacious and inapplicable these reasonings and opinions
are, if we turn to peasant rents, that is, to the large body
of the rents actually paid. I trust they will, in the text, be
made to appear equally fallacious, when taken as exclusively
applicable to the surplus profits realized on the land, that is,
to farmers' rents.
214 Rents.
Book I. ^,^110. to some Other sum, siiy £ 108., and the trans-
i^ect! 2. ^^^ of the difference to the landlords ; then the pro-
duce being still for A £\10., B £U5., C i;^120.,
Farmere'" ^ ^£'130., but the share of the producing classes
Rents. being reduced to X^ 108. in each; rents would rise
to the extent of £ 8. on tlie whole. A, which be-
fore paid no rent, would pay £ 2., B £1., C £ 12.,
D £ 22. But though rents had risen, the resources
of the country would remain precisely what they
were. There would have been a })artial transfer of
wealth, and no alteration in its amount ; that transfer
would have been advantageous certainly to the land-
lords, and proportionably injurious to the producing
classes ; and from the rise in the relative value of raw
produce, which, for reasons we need not state now,
would accompany the change, the transfer would,
to some extent, be injurious to consumers of every
class. In this case, we have supposed the produce
in consonance with ]Mr. Ricardo's views, to be sta-
tionary^; this is one mode unquestionably in which
rents may rise to an unlimited extent; but it is
only one, certainly the least common, and by much
the least efficient jcause of the increase of farmers'
rents : and in laying down general principles on
the subject of rent, we can hardly avoid being in-
volved in error by confining ourselves to sucli an
imperfect view of the various sources of its increase,
and aiguing on an assumption so contrary to obvious
' Ricardo, 3rd Edit. p. 485. VVe should have, he says, pre-
cisely the sanic (jiiantity, and no more, of commodities, and
the same millions of quarters of corn as bclbrc (that is, before
the ri>c dC lents.)
Rents. 215
facts and every day experience as this, that while B"ok r.
rents are rising, tlie amount of the national pro- g^^^^* ^*
duce is always stationary.
The effects on national wealth of a rise of rents FarSJs'*'^
from increased production, obtained by the employ- i^ents.
ment of additional capital, are of a widely different
complexion from those exclusively contemplated by
Mr. Ricardo. Let us again suppose A, B, C, Z),
to produce respectively <i?110., .£'115., =£"120., and
^130., in a country in which the art of agriculture
is backward and imperfect. As skill and wealth
increase, let its cultivation become more and more
complete, and the capital employed on these soils
be daubled; and let them yield (prices remaining
the same), A £ 220., B £ 230., C £ 240., D £ 260.
A will still pay no rent, but there will have been
a rise of rents on the other soils, amounting in the
whole to £ 35., B will pay £ 10., C £ 20., B £ 40.,
and these new rents will be a clear addition to the
national resources, founded on the creation of fresh
wealth : no class will be the poorer, nothing will have
happened which is injurious to any one ; there will
have been no transfer of wealth ; the relative value
of raw produce will (for any thing involved in this
change) have remained perfectly stationary : and in
proportion to this addition to its former resources,
will the country abound more in the "necessaries,
conveniences, and enjoyments of society," and be
better able " to maintain fleets and armies," or make
any other financial effort, than it was. The in-
creased rent, however, will form but a part, and
not the most important part, of the augmented
216 Rents.
'Booa-i- wealth and additional resources, which the same
g^^* 2"* multiplication of capital that created the rent,
will produce and place in other hands than those
Farmers'" of the landlords. In the case we have put, it
^^^' will be observed, that while rents have doubled,
agricultural capital, wages and profits, have doubled
too. The land of the community produces twice
what it did, and its territorial resources have dou-
bled, although its frontier has not been extended ;
and while this process is continued and repeated,
which in the progress of a skilful and wealthy people,
it may be more than once, such a people will con-
tinue to multiply in numbers, in riches, and in
political strength, compared with neighbouring na-
tions, among whom a ruder and more inefficient
mode of culture may continue to prevail. In-
creased rents, therefore, originating in the accumu-
lation of capital on the land, and in increased pro-
duction, are not only themselves a clear addition
to the resources of a country, but necessarily in-
dicate a yet greater addition in the hands of the
producing classes; — an addition which is substan-
tially equivalent to the progressive enlargement of
the territory itself.
There is one sense in which the proposition, that
rent is no addition to the wealth and resources of
a country, is a truth, though a very insignificant
truth : when it is merely meant, that the produce
of the land and labor of a country being deter-
mined, the appropriation of a part of it as rent,
makes the nation, collectively, no richer than it
was before ; this certainly is a truth, or rather a
Rents. 217
puerile truism. The produce of the land and labor ^ook r.
of a country being once determined, the amount of ^^l 2"'
i|s collective wealth cannot of course be affected by
the subsequent appropriation of it; whether it be Farm?ra'°
devoted wholly to wages, to profits, or even taxes, ^^^'
the nation collectively is as rich and no richer
than it was. But when it is asserted, as Mr. Ri-
cardo obviously means to assert, that in the pro-
gress of society, increasing rents merely indicate
a transfer of a part of the wealth already existing,
and never form any real addition to the resources
of a nation, the proposition is an obvious fallacy,
founded on his own peculiarly imperfect view of
the sources in which successive additions to the
rents of a country originate.
Different Effects of Capital employed in different
Shapes.
So far we have traced the effects on rents of
the accumulation of capital generally : that is, with-
out distinguishing between the effects of the dif-
ferent shapes in which it may be applied to the
land during the progress of its increase: and so
far as the necessary effect of such an accumula-
tion on rents was alone in question, this general
view was sufficient.
But to observe more distinctly the probable pro-
gress of the increase of capital employed in agri-
culture, and the ultimate limit to it; and to trace
its effects on the interests of the community, on
the relative numbers and weight of the classes which
218 Rents.
Book 1. composc it ; and on the nature and direction of their
^t o" industry, we must carefully distinguish between the
effects of increasing capital when it is applied to
Capi't^"^ the support of additional labor, and when it is ap-
plied as aiiociliary to the industry of the laborers
already employed, witliout any increase in their
number.
I am aware that if we follow Mr. Ricardo, and
some later writers, the distinction here made is fan-
ciful. According to them, this auxiliary capital is
the result of labor, and, tracing it sufficiently far
back, of labor alone. Its employment, therefore,
may be considered as the employment of the labor
which was used to produce it: and whether a man
works for ten days in producing a plough to be
employed upon the soil, or works ten days upon
the soil itself, he does virtually the same thing;
in either case ten days labor has been employed
in cultivation. There are some points of view, per-
haps, in which this forced identification of the re-
sults of labor, with labor itself, may not be inad-
missible, and may even be found convenient for
the purposes of calculation. Mr. Ricardo, and the
writers who have followed him, universally speak
of the labor which a commodity has cost, as the
sole foundation and measure of its value relatively
to all other commodities. A quantity of corn pro-
duced by a month's labor of one man, and a plough
produced by a month's labor of another man, would,
according to them, be of precisely the same value.
Hence all commodities must be estimated as so
mudi accumulated lalior. " Capital, or what is the
Rents. 219
same thing, labor," is an expression of Mr. Ricardo's Book i.
which flows naturally enough from their theory of ^^*P" ^""
the origin and measure of value. This theory it is
not necessary for our present purpose to examine. Auxiliary
I beg, however, in passing, to be numbered among
those who believe it defective, and who think that
in comparing the exchangeable value of different
commodities, other circumstances must be taken
into consideration, besides the quantity of labor
bestowed directly or indirectly upon each. But
whether such a theory of value be sound or un-
sound, for the purposes of our present investiga-
tion, it will be necessary to think and speak of
labor, and of the results of labor as two different
things. It will hardly be denied, that the using
an implement or manure to produce an effect in
agriculture, or using directly on the land the labor
which the implement or manure may have cost,
arc substantially distinct and different operations ;
that they may lead to different results, and each
be practicable or profitable only under different cir-
cumstances. Now it is some of the effects of such
differences that I am about to point out, because
I think the knowledge of them will lay open im-
portant views of the present condition and possible
progress of nations, and of the causes of those changes
which take place gradually in the relative numbers
and influence of the different bodies of men of which
they are composed.
The first difference vv^hich we will remark, between
the application of capital to agriculture in the sup-
port of additional laborers, and in the shape of im-
220 Rmts.
Book I. plemeiits, manures, drains, or any thing which is
Seo. 2" ^^*^ result of past labor as auxiliary to the efforts
of the laborers actually employed, is this, that in the
CapTtai!'^ first case, the quantity of human power, compared
with the capital employed, remains unaltered ; — that
in the second case, it is invariably increased. If
a capital is used in employing three men on the
soil, and then that capital is doubled, and six are
employed, the power employed in cultivation is
doubled, but it is not more than doubled ; we have
no reason for assuming that the labor of the three
men last employed, will be more efficient than that
of the three men first employed. But if instead
of employing the second capital in employing three
fresh laborers, means are found of applying it in
some of the shapes of auxiliary capital to increase
the power of the three laborers already employed,
we may then safely take it for granted that the
efficiency of the human labor employed directly
and indirectly in agriculture has been increased,
and that the three men assisted by this auxiliary
capital, will have powers which six men employing
all their power directly to the soil, would not
possess. To perceive this distinctly, it seems to be
only necessary to call to mind what must be the
constant motive to employ human labor in framing
machinery or implements, or in obtaining auxiliary
capital of any kind, in preference to employing
that labor directly to obtain the end for which
the auxiliary capital is to be used ; and what are
the usual steps by which the agricultural and ma-
nufacturing efforts of civilized nations gain efficiency.
Rents. 221
or travel from the rudeness and feebleness of the Book i-
industrious efforts of the savage, to the power and g^*^^' ^"'
comparative perfection of the arts of civilized man.
Man, in his attempts to obtain or fashion to his crpTui"^
wants, the material objects of his desires, differs
from the lower animals principally in this, that
his intellect enables him to contrive the means of
using the results of his past labor to push the
efficiency of his actual exertions beyond the limits
of his mere animal powers. While living on the
game of the forest, the hunter devotes a portion of
his time to forming his bow and arrows. If the
weapons, when made, enabled him to secure no more
game than he could have acquired by his unassisted
exertions in th,e time spent in making them, we may
be sure the acquisition of them would not continue
to tempt him. The husbandman after scratching
the ground for a time with the crooked branch of
a tree, devised at last an artificially constructed iron
plough : but if the effects on the soil of this plough
when used, were no greater than those which the
labor would have produced, which was spent in con-
structing the plough, had that labor been applied
directly to the land, then we may be sure that the
plough would not have been made. It is so with
all the helps contrived by man to assist his labor
from the feeblest and simplest to the most com-
plicated and powerful. If the labor employed in
constructing a steam engine could be applied with
the same effect as the engine itself in the various
arts and callings of life, we may be sure that
steam engines would never have become common.
222 Rent a.
Book I. Whenever, therefore, we sec a nation's stock of
Sect 2" wealth accumulating in the shape of auxiliary ca-
pital : when, instead of .using their capital to sup-
cl^i\2i7 P^^^ fresh laborers in any art, they prefer expend-
ing an equal amount of capital in some shape in
which it is assistant to the labor already employed
in that art, then we may conclude with perfect
certainty, that the efficiency of human industry has
increased relatively to the amount of capital em-
ployed.
In agriculture, the effects of auxiliary capital
in strengthening human power, are less obvious^
perhaps, than in manufactures ; but certainly not
less important. If we observe the quantity of im-
plements, of live and dead stock, of fences, drains
and buildings to be found on the surface of 1000
acres of land in a highly cultivated country, and
compare them with the wild and ill-occupied dis-
tricts of rude nations, we shall see that even in
agriculture, the efforts made by human intellect,
to use the results of past labor in strengthening
the actual power of the husbandman to develope
the resources of the earth, have been very consider-
able. The different extent to which different nations
have achieved this, forms one of the most important
distinctions between them. As man, in his rudest
state, and when chiefly employed in satisfying his
bare physical wants, is distinguished from the brute
creation by his capacity to use the hoarded results
of his past exertions to augment his command over
the material world ; so when we view him in a more
advanced state, and attempt to weigh and estimate
Rents. 223
the causes of the very distinct productive powers Book i.
of different communities, perhaps equally enlight- ^^^ g"
ened, we shall find the different degrees of such
power attained by each to be determined, and al- capi'tLT^
most measured, by the different extent to which
they have carried this original prerogative of the
human race. The necessaries and luxuries of life
are supplied, in all countries remarkable for their
civilization, by the assistance of a certain quantity
of auxiliary capital. But in the amount of that
capital possessed and used by each, there is a wide
difference. In this respect, England stands far
ahead of the whole civilized world, and not less
remarkably in her agriculture than in other depart-
ments of her industry. It appears from various
returns made at different times to the Board of
Agriculture, that the whole capital agriculturally
employed in England, is to that appliett to the
support of laborers, as 5 to 1 ; that is, there are
four times as much auxiliary capital used, as there
is of capital applied to the maintenance of the
labor used directly in tillage. In France, the aux-
iliary capital used does not amount (as appears from
Count Chaptal's book,) to more than twice that
applied to maintain rustic labor. In other Eu-
ropean countries, the quantity is, I suspect, very
much less.
Bearing in mind then, that at every step in
the accumulation of auxiliary capital in cultivation,
a difference is created in the power of human labor,
which does not occur when capital increases only
in the shape of additional maintenance for fresh
224 Rents.
Book I. workmcn on the soil itself; we may proceed to the
Chap. VII. gg^jomi difference between the effects of the em-
S6ct« 2*
ployment of auxiliary capital, and of capital applied
Auxiliary dircctly to the support of additional labor, which
Capital. -g ^jj-g . ^^^^ when a given quantity of additional
capital is applied in the shape of the results of past
labor, to assist the laborers actually employed, a less
annual return will suffice to make the employment of
such capital profitable, and, therefore, permanently
practicable, than if the same quantity of fresh capital
were expended in the support of additional laborers.
Let us suppose £100. employed upon the soil in
the maintenance of three men, producing their own
wages, and 10 per cent, profit on them, or £110.
Let the capital employed upon this soil be doubled.
And first let the fresh capital support three addi-
tional laborers. In that case, the increased produce
must consist of the full amount of their wages, and
of the ordinary rate of profit on them. It must con-
sist, therefore, of the whole £lOO,, and the profit on
it ; or of £110. Next let the same additional capital
of £l00. be applied in the shape of implements,
manures, or any results cf past labor, while the num-
ber of actual laborers remains the same. And let
this auxiliary capital last on the average five years :
the annual return to repay the capitalist must now
consist of £10. his profit, and of £20. the annual
wear and tear of his capital: or £30. will be the
annual return, necessary to make the continuous
employment of the second £lOO. profitable, instead
of £110., the amount necessary when direct labor
was employed by it.
Rents. 225
It will be obvious, tbercfore, tbat tbe accumu- BookI.
lation of auxiliary capital in cultivation, will be prac- t^cct. 2.
ticable when the employment of the same amount of
capital in the support of additional labor has ceased crplti?'^
to be so : and that the accumulation of such capital
in cultivation may go on for an indefinite period :
— that is, it may go on as long as human contrivance
can use it to urge on the progress of human power
in adding to the fertility of the soil, or what is the
same thing, to the efficiency of the laborers em-
ployed upon it: — provided only that the additional
produce obtained at each step of the process is suf-
ficient to pay the ordinary rate of profit on the
fresh auxiliary capital so employed, together with
the wear and tear of that capital.
Step by step, however, as the mass of such capital
increases, the ingenuity of man must be at work to
devise fresh modes of using it. To employ additional
labor to increase the produce of the land, all that is
necessary is to have the means of maintaining it. To
employ more of the results of past labor in assisting
the actual tillers of the earth requires constant con-
trivance and increasing skill.
With the increase of the mass of auxiliary capital
employed in agriculture rents will rise, from the un-
equal effects of that capital on soils of unequal good-
ness. But the rise of rents from the employment of
any given quantity of auxiliary capital, will be less
than that which would take place from the employ-
ment of an equal amount of capital in the mainte-
nance of additional labor. The additional annual pro-
duce, we have seen, will be less, and the difference
P
226 Rents.
Book I- between the amount of the produce of equal capi-
y^fg" ^^^ ®^ ^®^^^ of different gradations of fertility (on
which difference rents depend) will be of course
Ca^pTuL^ large, when the produce is large, and less, when
it is smaller. For instance, let A^ JB, C and D
produce as follows :
A B € D
<£*110. i?115. i'120. .^130.
The differences, surplus profits, or rents on S, C and
D, will be 5 + 10 + 20, or together ^35. Let an
additional i?100. employed in the maintenance of
additional labor, raise their produce to
A B c D
£220. i?230. ^240. =^260.
Rents will be doubled. The addition to them will
amount to another £35. But let the additional
capital of i?100. be applied in the results of past
labor, auxiliary to the labor already employed; and
let <£*30. be sufficient to pay the profits of that ca-
pital, and replace its annual wear and tear on A.
If JS, C and D yield a produce to the new capital
fully proportioned to their original superiority over A,
still their produce will not exceed (suppose,)
^140, Jff (115+32) = 147, C (120 + 34) = 154,
Z)(130 + 36) = 166.
The joint rents of the three will now be i^47. instead
of .£'35.: but instead of rents being doubled, and, as
in the last instance, the addition amounting to £35.^
it will amount only to ^12.; although, in the mean
time, the amount of profits realized by the farmers
Rents. 227
will have doubled, as in the former case. The pro- ^°^ \
gress of rents, therefore, though steady and constant, sect. 2.
will be more slow, and bear a less proportion to the
increased capital employed, and the advance of the capltaL^
incomes of the capitalists, when the additions to the
agricultural capital of the country are made in the
shape of auxiliary capital, than when those additions
are made in the shape of capital employed in the
support of additional labor : — an apparent disadvan-
tage to the landlords, which is amply compensated to
them by the possibility of employing progressively
increasing masses of such auxiliary capital to obtain
fresh produce, when the maintaining additional labor
on the soil for that purpose would be unprofitable
and impracticable. We are to bear in mind, then,
that the progress of auxiliary capital both increases
the command of man over the powers of the soil,
relatively to the amount of labor directly or in-
directly employed upon it ; and diminishes the annual
return necessary to make the progressive employment
of given quantities of fresh capital profitable: — that
it presents in its accumulation a source of addition
to the mass of rents, less copious, but more durable,
and longer in arriving at its ultimate limits, than
that derived from the direct employment of more
labor.
Effects of the Accumulation of auxiliary Capital
in Agriculture on the relative Numbers and In-
jiuence of the different Classes of the Community.
The accumulation in larger and larger masses of
the results of past labor, not to maintain the laboring
V 2
228 Rents.
Book I. part of the actual population, but to augment the
g^^' ™* efficiency of their industry, is a process which exer-
cises a decisive influence, not only on the compara-
ci**itab"^ tive productive power of different nations, but on the
various elements of their social and political com-
position. And in this point of view there are two
prominent effects of this mode of increasing the effi-
ciency of the cultivation which must be noticed:
First, the great increase of the relative numbers of
the non-agricultural classes : Secondly, the great in-
crease of the revenues and influence (and ordinarily
of the numbers) of the intermediate classes, or the
classes existing between the proprietors and laborers.
These changes in the relative numbers of the dif-
ferent parts of the community, exercise a consider-
able influence in moulding the fortune and character
of nations. The effects of such changes we shall
have to trace in another part of our work; it is
our object now to shew the manner in which the
changes themselves are produced.
The Emj)loyment of auxiliary Capital augments the
relative Numbers of the non-agricultural Classes.
When additional produce is obtained by the use
of a proportional quantity of additional labor alone,
the relative numbers of the agricultural and non-agri-
cultural classes remain unaltered. Let us suppose
a capital of one million of money maintaining one
million of agricultural laborers : the profits on the
million, at 10 per cent, will be c£ 100,000., and we
may assume the rents paid to be as much more. The
Rents. 229
numbers of the non-agricultural population will de- ^°o* '•
pend on the quantity of raw produce which the g^^ ^
laborers, from their revenue of one million, the
capitalists and landlords from their revenues ofcaplS^
£100,000 each, can spare to exchange for manu-
factured articles and non-productive labor \ Let
that number be 250,000 souls, or one-fourth of
the agriculturists. Let us suppose the agricultural
capital employed in such a country doubled, and
the agricultural labor doubled ; that instead of one
million of laborers, two millions are employed, and
that the produce, profits and rents are all doubled
too. The habits of the people remaining the same,
the quantity of raw produce applied to the main-
tenance of non-agricultural labor, will be doubled
also; the non-agriculturists will become 500,000,
and their relative number compared with the in-
creased number of non-agriculturists will be pre-
cisely what it was. Their influence, and that of
the produce of their industry on the habits of the
mass of the people, — the relative weight of their em-
ployers in the community, — will also be precisely
what it was, and no more: though the population
of the country will have doubled, or nearly doubled.
Let us next suppose the agricultural capital
in such a country to be doubled, but the additions
to be used not as food to maintain more laborers
on the soil, but in some shape auxiliary to the
laborers already employed. And let us take the
^ Meaning labor not productive of wealth, as we have de-
fined wealth, that is, material wealth.
230 Rents.
Boojc I. average duration of such auxiliary capital at five
^'P- f • years. Then profits will have increased from 100,000
_1 to 200,000. The increase of rents may be taken at
Auxiliary 50,000, and the sum necessary to replace the annual
Capital. ' ' -IP -IT 1 •
wear and tear of a capital oi one million lasting
five years will be £200,000. Here will be a gross
additional sum of £350,000. produced originally in
the shape of agricultural produce and wholly appli-
cable to the maintenance of non-agricultural labor;
the numbers of the non-agricultural laborers will
increase, while those of the agriculturists remain
stationary, and this increase may go on swelling
and repeating itself, till the non -agriculturists equal
or exceed the agriculturists.
This has taken place in England, where the
auxiliary capital employed in cultivation is greater
than in any other part of the world, and where
the non-agricultural population is actually to the
agricultural as 2 to 1. In all other extensive
countries, the agriculturists form the majority. In
France they comprise two-thirds of the population :
in most other countries much more.
The increase of auxiliary capital is certainly not
the only circumstance which affects the proportionate
numbers of the two great classes of cultivators
and non-cultivators. Any cause which increases
the efficiency of the actual cultivators may do so,
but the increase of auxiliary capital is the only
cause which, in the ordinary progress of civilized
nations, we are sure must exercise a progressive in-
fiuence in this respect.
Rents. 231
Book I.
2Vie Increase of auxiliary Capital increases the chap. vu.
Revenue of the intermediate Classes. ^^*^*- ^•
The next point in which the effects of the em- ciltaf.'^
ploy m en t of auxiliary capital, and of capital con-
sumed in the direct maintenance of labor, differ, is
this, that with the relative increase of auxiliary ca-
pital, a great increase ordinarily takes place in the
relative revenues of the middling, or, to use a more
comprehensive phrase, of the intermediate classes.
This effect is not peculiar to the increase of auxiliary
capital in cultivation, but follows its accumulation in
all the branches of human industry. We must en-
large on this elsewhere : but our view of the effects
which may be expected to accompany a rise of rents
caused by the general accumulation of capital on
the land, would be incomplete without adverting
to it. If we suppose any capital (£lOO. for instance)
employed upon the soil, wholly in paying the wages
of labor, and yielding 10 per cent, profit, the revenue
of the farmer will evidently be cne-tenth that of
the laborers. If the capital be doubled, or quadru-
pled, and the number of laborers be doubled or qua-
drupled too, then the revenue of the farmers will
continue to bear the same proportion to that of the
laborers. But if the number of laborers remaining
the same, the amount of capital is doubled, profits
at the same rate become .£'20., or one-fifth the reve-
nue of the laborers. If the capital be quadrupled,
profits become .£40., or two-fifths of the revenue
of the laborers : if capital be increased to £500.,
profits would become <£50., or half the revenue of
232 Rents.
^^ V the laborers. And the wealth, the influence, and
Chap. VII.
Sect. 2. probably to some extent the numbers of the capi-
talists in the community, would be proportionably
Auxiliary . •' x i ^
CapitaL increased.
This point, at least, the accumulation of auxiliary
capital in cultivation has reached in England. The
whole capital employed, is to that advanced in wages
at least as 5 : 1. The auxiliary capital, therefore,
is equal to at least four times the capital used in
the maintenance of labor, and the income of the
capitalists employed in agriculture equal to at least
half the wages paid to agricultural laborers.
I have supposed in the calculations hitherto
made, that the amount of labor employed in cul-
tivation has been stationary, while the amount of
auxiliary capital has been accumulating. This is
little likely ever to be true in practice. A great
increase of capital, of whatever description, used in
any art, usually makes the employment of some
additional direct labor necessary. This circumstance,
however, will not prevent the steady progress of the
relative increase of the auxiliary capital.
The two last noticed results of the increase of
auxiliary capital employed in agriculture, namely,
the relative increase of the numbers of the non-agri-
cultural classes, and the relative increase of the re-
venues and numbers of the intermediate classes, are
both changes of considerable importance in the pro-
gress of society. Supposing two nations to have
made in other respects nearly an equal progress in
arts and manufactures; the abundance or scantiness
with which each will be supplied with the decencies
Rents. 233
and artificial comforts of life, will depend entirely ^^^"^ ]■
on the comparative size of that portion of each com- ^^^ ^
munity, of which the industry is directed to occu-
pations distinct from agriculture : and in every nation ^^^^^
too, the amount of the fund which forms the revenue
of the intermediate classes, or of the classes which
in various gradations separate the higher from the
lower orders, is a circumstance of great moment to
the political and social character of the people.
While the revenue of the capitalists equals only
one-tenth that of the laborers, they form no pro-
minent portion of the community, and indeed must
usually be laborers or peasants themselves. But a
mass of profits equal to, or exceeding one-half the
wages of labor (which mass exists in England) na-
turally converts the class receiving it into a nume-
rous and varied body. Their influence in a com-
munity in which they are the direct employers of
almost all the laborers, becomes very considerable:
and what is in some respects of more importance,
such a rich and numerous body of capitalists, — as,
descending from the higher ranks, they approach
the body of the laborers by various gradations till
they almost mingle with them — form a species of
moral conductors, by which the habits and feelings
of the upper and middling classes are communicated
downwards, and act more or less powerfully upon
those of the very lowest ranks of the community.
The relative prevalence of artificial comforts,
consequent on the existence of a large industrious
non-agricultural population ; ranks of society ap-
proaching and blending in successive orders, so
23 i Rents.
Book I. ^r^^ ^^q higher arc linked with the lower, and
Sect. 2 a channel of communication formed through which
their moral influence may, to a certain extent,
CapitaT^ constantly pass to their inferiors ; these are cir-
cumstances, the practical effects of which we shall
have to trace in another portion of our work, when
we are examining the ordinary progress of the num-
bers of nations. They will be found to have an
important bearing on our subject, while we remark
various circumstances successively unfolding them-
selves in the progress of civilization, which tend
to moderate the disposition of a people, to exert
their full physical powers of increasing their ag-
gregate numbers, and help to subject the animal
passions of man to the partial control of motives,
aims and habits peculiar to him. as a rational
being.
We will conclude here our examination of the
first source enumerated of a rise of farmers' rents,
namely, the progressive accumulation and unequal
effects of capital on all gradations of soils.
We have found, that such an accumulation or-
dinarily takes place in the progress of population
and wealth:
That the rise of rents, which proceeds from this
cause, is wholly independent of the cultivation of
inferior soils, and of the expenditure of capital on
the old soils with a diminished return ; and that
it might go on indefinitely, though neither of tliese
circumstances ever occurred:
That the additional capital may be employed in
maintaining additional agricultural laborers; or in
Retits. 235
various shapes in which it is only auxiliary to the ^°°^ ^•
laborers already employed : g*^^' ^*
That when fresh capital is used in agriculture
in the latter shape, the power of the human labor ca^nhai!"^
applied directly or indirectly to the soil, may be
assumed to be increasing; while the quantity of
additional produce necessary to make the employ-
ment of a given quantity of capital profitable, is
decreasing :
That hence the accumulation of auxiliary capital
with increasing effect on the land may go on, for
an indefinite period, after the employment of addi-
tional capital, without a diminished return in main-
taining more agricultural labor, has become impos-
sible :
That with the employment of greater masses of
auxiliarly capital, the relative numbers of the non-
agricultural classes will increase ; and also the reve-
nue, the influence, and ordinarily the number and
variety, of the intermediate classes, which connect
the higher with the lower.
We have seen, that the general increase of pro-
duction which follows such an accumulation of capi-
tal on the old soil, is a most important and bene-
ficial addition to the territorial resources of the people
among whom it takes place: — and that there is
practically no period of such an increase, at which
the interests of the landed proprietors are not in
strict unison with those of the population.
236
SECTION III.
On the second Source of the Increase of Farmers'' Rents,
or on the increasing Efficiency of the Capital employed.
Book I. In the progress of agriculture, and after the
Sert! 3" establishment of farmers' rents, some improvements
may be expected to take place in the efficiency
Efficient of the Capital employed in cultivation. Both the
of Capital, gj^ju ^jjjj power of the cultivating class increase.
Their skill, because much thought is sedulously
applied to the subject by men freed from the
toilsome and absorbing occupations of the mere
laborer, and not distracted like the landlords by
loftier pursuits and more enticing occupations. With
the increase of skill, the mere manual exertions
of the laborer and the most ordinary and rudest
implements and means become more efficient, be-
cause better directed and combined. But as the
agriculturists increase in skill, they usually increase
also in the power which they can apply to effect
their purposes. The increase of auxiliary capital
in all its shapes (one invariable effect of advancing
wealth and knowledge) has a constant tendency,
as we have seen, to put such increased power into
their hands.
Of increased skill and increased power, an in-
crease in the efficiency of the capital employed in
cultivation is a necessary consequence, and may shew
itself by two effects.
Rerds. 237
1st. I^ess capital may be necessary to produce ^^ ^:
a given quantity of produce from a spot of ground. se«. 3.
2nd. The same capital may produce from the
same spot of ground a larger produce than it be- Efficiency
fore yielded. The last of these improvements or- " *^''
dinarily includes the first. When, on any spot of
ground i?100. can be so employed, as to produce
a larger return than the same amount of capital
did before, then some smaller quantity of capital
will usually obtain the same produce which .£'100.
once did. But the first improvement mentioned,
does not always include the last; for means are
sometimes discovered of getting the same amount
of produce cheaper, when no means have been hit
on of increasing it. In whichever result, however,
the increasing efficiency of the capital employed
shews itself, rents will rise, and unless the progress
of improvement outstrips the progress of population,
and the growth of produce exceeds the growth of
demand, (an event rarely to be expected,) this rise
of rents, from the increased efficiency of the capital
employed, will be permanent; and it wiU ordina-
rily coincide, as we shall presently see, with an
extension of the agricultural wealth, the popula-
tion, strength, and resources of the country. If
£^0. can be made to produce what d^lOO. formerly
produced from the same spot of ground, say .£'110.,
the profits realized will have risen from 10 per cent,
to somewhat more than 20. Of these profits, some-
what more than .£*10. will be surplus profits or rents.
Again, if ^100. formerly produced a certain quan-
tity of corn which sold for <£*110., and can now be
238 Rents.
Book I. gQ employed, as from the same spot to produce corn
SeTt! 3" which at the same prices would sell for ^C' 1 20 ; ad-
ditional surplus profits will be made on that land,
EfS^ and additional rent be paid for it: — provided that
of Capital. ^^^ whole improvement is not discovered, completed,
and generally adopted, so rapidly, as to make the
now increasing quantity of corn outstrip the progress
of population and demand. For in that case, prices
might fall, and rents remain stationary or recede.
It is not necessary again to discuss the probability
of this dislocation between the demand and supply.
The rise of rents which would follow such an in-
creased efficiency as we have been assuming, of the
capital employed in agriculture, would clearly be
quite independent of any spread of tillage to in-
ferior soils. Such a rise of rents might take place,
and go on increasing with the increase of popula-
tion indefinitely, though no inferior gradations of
soil were in existence.
There is a clear addition to the national resources
when rents rise from the increased efficiency of agri-
cultural capital. But this addition, (unlike that
which accompanies a rise of rents from the greater
accumulation of capital on the soil,) is usually con-
fined to, or measured by, the increased rents them-
selves. When £ 100. produces (prices being the
same) corn worth oC*120., instead of corn worth
j£*110., the wealth of the nation is increased by
ten pounds worth of corn, and no more. When
<f 90. will produce the same quantity of corn which
£\Q0. did produce, the nation is enriched to the
same amount in another shape; for £\0. may be
Rents. 239
withdrawn from agriculture without its produce ^°^^ '•
being diminished, and the nation will be enriched ^^^^ 3"*
by being put in possession of any other commo-
dities which the capital of ^PIO. may be employed Effidency
to produce. The increase of national wealth will, °^ CapitaL
in either case, be confined to the amount of <£*10.,
the same sum by which rents rise. Increased rents,
therefore, from the increased efficiency of capital,
though an addition to the national wealth and
resources, do not indicate so large an addition to
those resources, as increased rents proceeding from
the accumulation of capital in cultivation ; for an
increase from this last source is accompanied, as
we have seen, by a great addition to the means
of the producing classes, which must be added to
the new rents before we can estimate the whole
addition to the nation's resources, which such a
rise of rents indicates.
So far increased rents from a better use of the
capital employed in agriculture, may seem to come
accompanied by less extensive additions to the na-
tional resources, than increased rents proceeding from
the gradual increase in the amount of the capital
employed in cultivation. But there are some results
of the increasing efficiency of agricultural capital
that remain to be noticed, which very much aug-
ment the effects on public prosperity of a pro-
gressive rise of rents from this source.
It has already been shewn, that a spread of til-
lage to inferior soils does not necessarily accom-
pany, or follow, a rise of rents, when the efficiency
of the cultivator's capital increases; that such an
240 Rents.
^^°°^ I- extension is in no sense either the cause of such
Chap. vii. . , , • -r» •^^ • n i
Sect. 3. a rise or essential to it. But still, in tact, the
same increased productiveness of agricultural capital,
Effidem:y ^hich occasious a rise of rents on the old lands,
of Capital, usually luakes it possible to extend tillage to lands
of inferior natural fertility, with as ample a return
as that obtained from the old soils before the im-
provement took place. When the turnip husbandry
was first adopted by the Norfolk farmers, it was
found to increase the fertility of their lands so
much, that farms, which before yielded a very
small rent, now yielded one considerably larger.
But another, and in a national point of view, a
much more important result followed. There ex-
isted in England large tracts of light sandy soil,
supposed to be wholly sterile, on wliich this new
mode of husbandry was practicable, and when the
produce of kindred soils, of somewhat better staple,
yielded much more than the ordinary profits of
stock, and paid considerable rents, it became pos-
sible to cultivate some of the more barren tracts
without a loss. They were rapidly reclaimed from
the waste, and the agriculture of England has since
been gradually spreading itself over large districts
of this description, which before yielded little or
no human food, and contributed nothing to in-
crease that mass of wages, profits, and rents, which
compose jointly the resources of the country.
Nor is this the only, though it is the most
obvious manner, in which an increased efficiency of
agricultural capital widens the agricultural resources
of nations, at the same time that it is elevating
Rents. ' 241
rents. Such an improvement usually leads to the book i.
employment of a greater quantity of capital over g^^^" ^*
the whole cultivated surface of the country.
If the capital, which before yielded the ordinary ^^^^
rate of profit, say 10 per cent., now yields .£'120., °f Capital.
and pays a rent of ^10., the farmer will often find
that he can employ another portion of capital, say
.£'100., which though it may not pay so much as
his old capital now does, will still pay on some soils
barely perhaps .£'110., the ordinary profits of stock;
on others, perhaps, ^111., .f 112., and ^^113., that
is, something more on each than the usual rate
of profit, though not so much as the old capital
has been made to yield by the improved efficiency
of its application. On these last soils, rents will
then be rising from two causes ; from the increased
efficiency of the old capital, and from the unequal
effects on soils of different degrees of fertility, of
the new capital, which begins to accumulate on
them. When an opportunity offers of thus gra-
dually augmenting the capital which they can pro-
fitably employ on the old lands; the farmers of
a prosperous country will slov/ly take advantage of
it.
For reasons hereafter to be explained, in coun-
tries where capital abounds, the owners of it are
always impelled by self-interest to use the various
additions which they employ, as much as possible,
in the shape of auxiliary capital, and as little as
they can help in the shape of wages of labor. The
gradual increase of the relative quantity of auxiliary
capital is, therefore, the ordinary effect of the pro-
Q
242 Rents.
^^^ \ gressive increase of the whole mass of capital em-
Sect. 3. ployed in agriculture. This is naturally followed,
for the reasons we have stated, by a progressive
Effidency incrcasc of the efficiency of human industry ; and
of Capital, in ti^ig manner, the means are gradually developed,
of contending successfully with soils of a low de-
gree of native fertility, and of obtaining, without
a diminution of agricultural power, the supplies
for an increasing population. As the cultivated
territory thus widens, large quantities of capital
accumulate both upon the old soils and upon the
successive additions to the tilled ground, and the
resources of a nation to maintain a numerous po-
pulation are at once multiplied and extended.
Although then the immediate addition to the
national wealth, which is indicated by a rise of
rents from the increased efficiency of the capital
employed, is limited to the amount of the increased
rent itself: yet the spread of tillage to inferior
soils, and the increase of capital on the old soils,
which usually follow such a rise, produce an ad-
ditional extension of the resources of a people,
which is of very great importance to the welfare
and strength of every increasing community.
We have seen, that a spread of tillage to in-
ferior soils is by no means essential to the rise of
rents, which takes place when agricultural capital
becomes more efficient. But the establishment of
this fact, does not disclose all the errors of those
who have thought and taught that " Rent depends
" exclusively on the extension of tillage : that it
" is high where tillage is widely extended over in-
Rents. 243
" ferior lands, and low where it is confined to the ^°°^ ^•
"superior descriptions only."^ Whenever a rise of yg^^^t 3"'
rents takes place from the increased demand for
agricultural produce, the spread of tillage to in- ^ffid^
ferior soils presents the practical limit to that rise. "^ Capital.
It is clear, that if, as nopulation increased, all fresh
supplies were necessarily extracted from the old soils
alone, there would be no assignable limit to the
increase of the relative value of raw produce, of the
surplus profits made on the land, or of rents. But
while additional quantities of produce can be ob-
tained from inferior gradations of soils, the price of
raw produce will never exceed the cost of procuring
it from the lowest gradation which it is found expe-
dient to cultivate : and if from the increasing eflS-
ciency of agricultural capital, the cost of getting
produce from that gradation is not greater than
it was on the old soils before the improvement,
the price of raw produce will not rise at all. The
inferior soils, therefore, though their culture is not
essential to a rise of rents, present always a boundary
to that rise. Their existence is a protection to the
interests of the consumers without interfering with
those of the landed proprietors. They prevent com
being sold at a monopoly price, and cut off the in-
creased rents which such a price creates; without
interfering with the beneficial increase of the reve-
nues of the landed proprietors, which flows either
from the source we are examining, the better ap-
plication of capital, or from that we have before
1 Macculioch, p. 282.
q2
244 Rents.
Book I. examined, the increased quantity of capital em-
secrr.' ployed in the national agriculture.
Improvements, therefore, in the efficiency of the
ES^cy capital employed in cultivation, raise rents, by in-
of Capital, creasing the surplus profits realized on particular
spots of land.
They invariably produce this increase of surplus
profits, unless they augment the mass of raw pro-
duce so rapidly as to outstrip the progress of demand ;
an event of rare occurrence.
Such improvements in the efficiency of the capi-
tal employed, do usually occur in the progress of
agricultural skill, and of the accumulation of greater
masses of auxiliary capital.
A rise of rents from this cause, is generally fol-
lowed by the spread of tillage to inferior soils, with-
out any diminution in the returns to agricultural
capital on the worst spots reclaimed.
This spread of tillage must not, however, be
confounded with the causes of the rise of rents on
the old soils, with the origin of which rise it is
wholly unconnected, while it serves in its conse-
quences to moderate and limit those augmented
rents.
SECTION IV.
On the third Source of the Increase of Farmers' Rents^
Book I. namely.^ a Decrease in the Share of the producing
Se« 4 Classes, the Produce remaining the same.
Increase of A RISE iu thc relative value of raw produce,
tua^" (the cost of producing other commodities remain-
Rents. 245
ing stationary) from whatever cause the rise pro- ^<^* ^;
ceeds, will always be followed by a decrease of the g^ct. 4.
share of the producing classes in the products of
the soil, relatively to the labor and capital they-r"^^'
employ ; and by a corresponding rise in the pro- ^"""
duce rents of the landlords.
Let £100. be laid out on A, a soil paying no
rent, and yielding only the ordinary profits of stock ;
and let the produce be 50 quarters of com selling
at £2. 4*. per quarter, or £110. If the relative
value of corn rises, and the price is raised 2*. a
quarter, the £100. laid out on A will produce
£115., of which £5. will be surplus profits. The
fanners' profits, at his next contract with his land-
lord, will be reduced to the level of those of his
neighbours. This can only be done by his retain-
ing so much only of the produce of his land, as
at the advanced prices vnll pay him £110.; the
landlord will take the remainder, or the price of
the remainder, and it will become rent. A, which
before paid no rent, will now pay a rent of £5.,
and in like manner, upon all the superior soils
which before paid rent, there vdll be a rise, from the
decrease of the share of the producing classes in
their produce, the produce itself remaining sta-
tionary.
So far, the decrease of the share of the produc-
ing classes, and the corresponding rise of rents, have
been wholly unconnected with the cultivation, or
even the existence, of inferior soils. The rise of
raw produce, proceeds always, in the first instance,
from an increasing demand without a correspond-
246 Rents.
^^^ ^;. ing increase of the supply. If a country had no
Sect. 4. soil to resort to besides those already cultivated,
the demand might keep constantly ahead of the
Increase of ■• i • . i j .i •^^
Farmers' slowly increasing supply, and the possible increase
Rents. -jj ^|jg relative value of raw produce, and the con-
sequent rise of rents, would be indefinite.
But when inferior gradations of soil exist, and
can be resorted to, the rise in the exchangeable
value of raw produce is limited. It will stop when
the price of com is sufficient to replace, with the
ordinary rate of profit, the expence of cultivating
as much of those inferior soils as will yield the pro-
duce necessary to restore the balance between the
demand and supply. This state of things is what
usually exists in extensive countries possessing soils
of various degrees of goodness, and it is that which
we shall more particularly examine while tracing
the effects of a rise of rents from a decrease of the
share of the producing classes in the products of
the soil. But we must not, therefore, lose sight
of the fact, that the rise of rents which takes place
from the cause we are now tracing, is antecedent
to, and independent of, the spread of tillage to
inferior soils, and must take place to a much
greater extent than we ever now see it, were there
no inferior soils in existence.
The Increase of pioduce Rents is measured by
the decreasing Fertility of Soils.
Where, in consequence of an increasing demand
for raw produce, cultivation is spreading to inferior
Rents. - 247
soils, if the return from those soils, in spite of the Book i.
increasing skill and augmented power of the agri- ^^^p-^-
culturists, be still less than the return from the
old soils before was, the permanent rise of produce i^"^crease of
rents from this cause will be measured by the dif- R«nts.
ference between the return to a certain quantity
of capitaL and labor from the new soils, and the
return to the same quantity of capital and labor
from the worst of the old soils.
If on Af a quality of soil, paying no rent,
a certain quantity of labor and capital produces
55 quarters of corn, and on -B a soil worse than
A, the same quantity of labor and capital can
produce only 53 quarters, then when the demand
for corn, and the rise in its relative value becomes
such that B can be cultivated, and pay the ordi-
nary profits of stock, A will pay a rent of two
quarters of corn: for B, which produces 53 quar-
ters, returning the ordinary profits of stock, A^
which produces 55 quarters, must return the ordi-
nary profits of stock, and also two quarters of corn ;
which two quarters, or the price of them, will be-
come surplus profits or rent.
It will be obvious that the rise of rents in
this case, forms no addition to the resources of a
country. The increased rents of the old soils are
a mere transfer of a portion of the wealth already
existing from the producing classes to the landlords :
the nation, collectively, is neither richer nor poorer
than it was; there has only been a change, and
by no means a desirable change, in the distribu-
tion of wealth wliich it already possessed. In this
248 Rents.
Book I. rcspect, as in many others, a rise of rents from
^^Sea 4' *^^^ cause contrasts, much to its disadvantage, with
a rise from the two causes of which we first analyzed
jS^'°^ the operation.
Rents. But the apprcheusious which have been enter-
tained, as to a necessary falling off in the returns
to capital and labor generally, which it has been
supposed must always follow a diminution in the
returns to agricultural industry on the worst soils
cultivated, are happily extravagant and groundless.
Such a diminution in the power of agricultural
industry, though a possible event, takes place in
the progress of a wealthy people very rarely.
I doubt if it ever takes place at all; and when
it does takes place, we must not hastily conclude
that because the quantity of corn remaining in
the hands of the producing agricultural classes is
diminished, there must therefore be a fall either
in profits or wages, or that such producing classes
would have the means of consuming either less corn,
or less of any other commodity, than they did be-
fore the reduction of their share in the produce
of the soil. For these conclusions, which look at
first very like truths, are in fact fallacious, as a
short examination will shew us.
The decreasing Fertility of Soils may he balanced
hy the increased Efficiency of manufacturing
Labor.
Human industry is not wholly employed in pro-
ducing raw produce: and its increasing efficiency
Rents. 249
in other departments may balance, and more than Book i.
balance, the decreasing powers of agriculture: may ^^uT.'
enable the society to spare the additional propor-
Increased
tion of men and capital required to produce an Efficiency
imdiminished quantity of food for increasing num- J^JJ^g"
bers, and that without lessening the mass of wealth Lab««^-
enjoyed by any class of men. This will appear
more clearly from an example or two to which
I solicit the reader's attention, as containing the
proof of a fact very important to be understood, in
examining the possible progress of human society,
after population has become dense, and capital and
the arts have made great progress. Let us first
take the simplest case which involves the principle
we wish to explain, and let us suppose ten ship-
wrecked mariners cast on some uninhabited shore,
and dividing between them the task of providing
their common food, clothing, and shelter. During
the first year, let the exertions of five men be suf-
ficient to supply their table, and the exertions of
the other five their food, raiment, &c. In the next
year, food may have become more scarce, and the
time of eight of the men may be occupied in pro-
curing it. But in the mean time, the skill of the
artisan division may have so improved, that two
men may be able to secure to the whole party the
same quantity of clothing, shelter, &c. that before
engrossed the industry of five. In this case, four-
fifths of the laboring hands will be occupied in
procuring food, instead of one-half as before. Still
the consumption of articles of every description will
remain the same throughout the little community.
250 Rents.
Book I. We may put the case yet stronger. If one man
^*P* ^"* became able to supply the clothing, &c. they might
spare nine to go in quest of food, and might ac-
increased tuallv consume morc food, and as much of every
Efficiency ■' iim/»i -i
ofManu. thing clsc, as they did while food was more easily
facturing .
Labor. procured.
Let us next observe, what effects would be pro-
duced by a similar change in the productive powers
of different classes of the community, if such change
occurred among a people whose social relations were
less simple than those of the knot of men we have
been figuring to ourselves, and let us suppose a
community consisting of 24 men, employed, one-
half in producing corn, and one-half in producing
cloth. Let com, for our present purpose, represent
all the varieties of raw produce, and cloth all com-
modities produced by the national industry which
are distinct from raw produce.
Let the corn-growers produce 14 quarters of
com, and the cloth-makers 14 pieces of cloth, of
each of which let 12 go to wages and 2 to profits.
Then, if each party exchange half their produce
with the other division, every laborer in each will
have half a quarter of corn, and half a piece of
cloth; and their two employers will have a piece
of cloth and a quarter of com each.
Next, let us suppose this laboring population
doubled: that there are 48 laborers instead of 24,
and that to produce double the quantity of com,
it has become necessary, from the decreasing fer-
tility of the fresh soils resorted to, to employ in
agriculture, not double the number of men formerly
Rents. 251
employed, but more than double ; say three times Book i
Chap, vi
Sect. 4.
the number, or 36 men. Then, by the supposition, *^* "''
36 men produce double the quantity of corn before
produced, or 28 quarters. In the mean while, let ^^^j^
the productive powers of the cloth-workers have so ^^ ^^*?'"-
•"■ *■ facturing
increased, that to produce double the former quan- Labor.
tity of cloth, the labor of double the number of
men is not necessary, but of a less number, say
of 12: then by the supposition, 12 men will pro-
duce double the former quantity of cloth, or 28
pieces. But as 36 men produce 28 quarters of
com, while 12 men produce 28 pieces of cloth, each
quarter of corn will exchange for three pieces of
cloth'. Between the 48 men, there will be to be
divided 28 quarters of corn, and 28 pieces of cloth,
which will give them their old wages of half a quar-
ter of corn, and half a piece of cloth each, and will
also leave four quarters of corn and. four pieces of
cloth as profits. But the capitalist cloth-worker,
employing only one-fourth of the men, will take
only one-fourth of the profit, or one piece of cloth
and one quarter of corn. The corn-grower, employ-
ing three-fourths of the men, will take three-fourths
of the profit, or three quarters of com and three
pieces of cloth. As the rate of wages remains pre-
cisely what it was, so will the rate of profits : for
each employer of 12 men, at the old wages, will
^ It would complicate the calculation, if we were to take
in here any elements of exchangeable value besides the mere
labor employed : and to demonstrate the truth we are travelling
to, that complicated calculation is not necessary.
252 Rents.
Book I, still get One piece of cloth and one quarter of corn
g^'^* ^"' as the profit on his advances.
If the power of the manufacturer of cloth, in-
Effid^cy stead of doubling, had more than doubled during
ofManu- this proccss, then it is evident that the producing:
factunng * _ i O
Labor. classcs generally might consume not merely as much
com, but more than as much corn as they did
before recourse was had to soils of a less fertility ;
for, instead of employing 36 men, they might have
employed a greater number in cultivation, have
produced and consumed more corn, yet get the same
quantity of cloth which they did before. The agri-
culturists will receive, in the first instance, from
the soil, less com, in proportion to their numbers,
than they did before the increase of population
and the spread of tillage; but as by the sacrifice
of a smaller portion of that com, they can obtain
the same amount of other necessaries which they
may need, they will retain as much or more com
for their own consumption, as they did when they
drew larger returns from the ground. Each manu-
facturer or mechanic will give in exchange for the
com which he consumes, a larger quantity of his
own produce than he did before the spread of
tillage ; but as he produces more than he did, he
will be able to purchase the same amount of corn
without consuming less of other necessaries. The
effects of the failure in productive power of one
branch of the population, will be balanced, perhaps
more than balanced, by the increased productive
power of another branch. Those who produce less,
will find their commodities rising in exchangeable
Rents. 253
value ; those who produce more will find them falling, book i.
These variations in relative value, will distribute ^1^2
equally all the advantages and disadvantages of the
variations which take place in the productive power Ef^iency
of different branches of industry. A falling off in "fj^"^'
any one branch, may still leave the nation col- ^^o'-
lectively, and each particular class of it, as well
supplied even with that species of produce as be-
fore the decrease, and the only effect of a decrease
in one quarter, and increase in another, will be
a difference in the proportionate number of laborers
and quantity of capital employed in diflPerent occu-
pations.
We have seen, that as the process we have been
describing became complete, and corn rose in ex-
changeable value, a rent would be generated which
did not exist before. This increased rent, how-
ever, unlike those which we have before been con-
sidering, will be obviously no addition to the re-
sources of the country. It will be a mere transfer
of wealth already existing, from the producing
classes to the landlords. The nation, it is true,
will be richer relatively to its numbers than it
was before the spread of tillage: few: the producing
classes, we have seen, will have the same quantity
of raw produce and other necessaries which they
had; and there will be further in the hands of the
landlords a certain portion of the produce of the
old lands as rent. But this additional wealth will
have proceeded, not certainly from the decreasing
powers of agriculture, but from the increased effi-
ciency of manufacturing industry, which has enabled
254 Rents.
Book I. the nation to spare without a loss, the hands neces-
^S 4" '^^'y ^^ cultivate soils of diminished fertility, and
rather more than balanced the effects of the de-
Effiek?/ creased powers of agricultural industry. The nation,
ofManu- collcctively, would no doubt have been richer had
Labor. no rcut been generated, if the land last employed
in tillage had yielded returns equal to those of the
lands before cultivatedj and if the advantages of in-
creased manufacturing power had been gained with-
out any diminution in the returns to agricultural
industry. When rents are incteasing from the two
sources, of which we before examined the operation,
namely, the accumulation of additional capital in
agriculture, and the increased efficiency of capital
already employed, then the result is an unmixed
advantage. Agriculture is itself adding largely to
the resources of the country, and the increasing
wealth which flows from the augmented powers of
manufacturing industry is balanced by no drawback.
It must be distinctly admitted on the other hand,
that a rise of rents from the particular cause we
are now examining, is no real addition to the re-
sources of a nation. The decreasing efficiency of
agricultural capital must always be a disadvantage,
but it is consolatory to reflect, that such a decrease,
while it checks the possible advance of a nation in
wealth, is not necessarily followed by any actual
impoverishment: that neither the rate of wages, or
rate of profits, are determined solely by the returns
to the capital employed upon the soil, and that they
may remain undiminished, and may even steadily
increase while the fertility of the soil is as steadily
Rents. 255
diminishing. The career of tlie human race would book l
indeed have heen melancholy, had the laws of nature g^^^^' ^"*
been such, that as the numbers of nations increased,
additional food must necessarily have been procured Efficient
by the sacrifice of additional labor ; a sacrifice in- °} ^i^:""-
... fi . lacturmg
volving in its consequences a fall in the rate of Labor,
wages or profits, which no increase of intelligence,
skill, and power, in the other branches of human
industry could make amends for. But the supposed
necessity of the sacrifice of additional labor to pro-
cure greater supplies, and the supposed effects of
that sacrifice should it take effect, are each of them
unfounded suppositions. The facts, happily, are all
imaginary, on which the assumption rests, of an
iron necessity dogging thus the progress of man-
kind, and depriving them ever of some portion of
necessaries and comforts as their numbers expand.
Should the produce of agriculture begin to lessen,
the increased means and skill of civilized commu-
nities, we have seen, may enable them to spare the
additional hands necessary to force the flagging
powers of the earth, without leaving any class of
the community worse supplied with wealth in any
of its shapes.
SECTION V.
Book I.
071 the Fallaciousness of some supposed Indications of ^^^' "^^
the decreasing Efficiency of agricultural Labor. '
We hope to have shewn satisfactorily, first, that Dec^^ of
there is no ground for supposing that additional Sency'?'
256 Rents.
Book I. supplics of food for ail increasing population, must
^&^ 5" "^c^ssarily be got at the expencc of more labor.
And, secondly, should they be got at the expence
Supposed Qf more labor, that it by no means follows that
Decrease of ' •'
agricultural the producing classes must necessarily submit to
consume less either of food, or of any thing else.
Still it has been admitted, that at some period in
the existence of nations, there may be a rise of
rents caused by a decrease in the returns to agri-
cultural capital, and the opinions which have lately
been prevalent, make it important to destroy every
temptation to ascribe hastily to this unpopular cause,
those successive additions to the revenues of the
landed body, which other causes almost necessarily
occasion during the prosperous career of nations :
causes, the continual action of which, we have al-
ready observed to be in perfect harmony, and indeed
closely connected with the progress of a people in
wealth, and resources, and agricultural power, and
skill. We must entreat then the further patience
of the reader, while we shew that some indications
which have been supposed to prove in the most
unquestionable manner some actual decrease in the
powers of agriculture, will turn out, on examina-
tion, to afford no such proof at all.
The circumstances usually referred to, with the
most confidence, as indicating a decrease in the
productive powers of agriculture, arc first, a fall
in the rate of profits; secondly, a rise in the rela-
tive value of raw produce, compared with other
domestic commodities ; thirdly, a rise in the prices
x)f raw produce, compared with the actual prices
Rents. 257
in neiehbourinor countries of similar soil and cli- ^oo^^i*
mate, or compared with former prices at home, pro- sect. 5.
vided, in the last case, the rise be greater than can
be accounted for by any fall which may have taken itecrea^of
place in the value of the precious metals. Emlkncy^^
A fall of Profits is no Proof of the decreasing
Efficiency of agricultural Industry.
A decrease in the share of one of the producing
classes, that is, a fall in the rate either of wages
or of profits, is never necessarily the result of the
diminished productive power of human industry in
any of its branches-
If, when profits fall from 12 to 10 per cent,
wages experience a corresponding rise, there can
have been no decrease of productive power. As
wages always engross the largest part of the pro-
duce, a moderate and almost insensible change in
wages will bring about marked and considerable
variations in the rate of profits quite independently
of any alterations in the efficiency of agricultural
or other industry. Let us suppose £lOO. to be
employed in paying wages, returning £ll2., or
a profit of 12 per cent. If wages rise from £lOO.
to £102., that is, 2 per cent, only, then (the pro-
ductive power of labor being stationary,) profits must
fall from £ 12. on £ 100. advanced, to £lO. on £l02.
advanced: or from 12 per cent, to something under
10 per cent. : there will have been a rise of one-
fiftieth in wages, and a resulting fall of one-sixth
R
258 Rejits.
Book I. in piofits. And on the supposition here made.
Chap. vii. ^1^^^ ^ij ^^^ advances of the capitalist are in the
hect. 5. _ '■
shape of wages, it is clear that a rise of 12 per
Decn;°^4'^of ccnt. in wagcs would not merely diminish the
a^cuiturai profits of the calpitalist, but absorb them entirely.
In practice, however, a moderate rise of wages
will not affect profits so seriously as in the instance
here assumed, because all capital is not employed
in paying wages, and the effects of fluctuations in
the rate of wages are not confined to the profits
on the wages themselves, but are spread over a
larger body of profits, and are thus attenuated. If
we suppose £500. to be employed in production,
and of that sum only £100. to be advanced as the
wages of labor; the profits of £500. at 12 per cent,
will be £60. If the rate of profits in this case
is to be reduced by a rise of wages to 10 per cent.,
that is, to a sum of £50., the rise of wages must
be more considerable than in the instance before
assumed. The sum advanced by the capitalist is
£500.: the whole produce is £560. Let wages
rise 10 per cent, and become £llO. ; the advance of
the capitalist will then be £510., and, prices being
stationary, his profit £50., which will be 10 per
cent, within a small fraction. Supposing, therefore,
the whole capital employed to be equal to five
times the sum paid in wages (which is perhaps
nearly the true proportion in England,), a rise of
10 per cent, in wages, that is, an addition of
only \s. to every \0s. before advanced to the la-
borer, will lower profits from 12 per cent, to 10
per cent., and such a moderate rise of wages might
Rents. 259
produce, in fact, nearly all the difference observable book i.
in the rates of profit current in the different states g^j^J 5,
of Europe \
In these calculations, we have supposed the pro- DeS^V
ductive power of the national industry stationary. E^^gjJn"''^
Were it ever really so, the influence on the rate
of profit of fluctuations in the amount of wages,
would strike all practical observers more forcibly
than it now does; but in truth, the productive
power of the national industry is rarely, or per-
haps never, stationary ; and while that power is vary-
ing, the results of its changes must often balance
to a certain extent, and therefore disguise, the in-
fluence of alterations in the rate of wages on profits.
Thus, if we suppose, as before, £lOO. expended
wholly in wages, and paying 12 per cent, profit,
the produce will be £ll2. But if the productive
power of industry be so increased that, prices re-
maining the same, the return becomes £l34. 8*.,
then wages may rise to £l20., and profits will
not vary at all ; they will still be 12 per cent. ; while
wages have increased one-fifth, and the only change
will be an addition to the mass of capital devoted
to the advance of wages. While the productive
powers of labor are varying, therefore, we may ex-
pect that the influence of fluctuations in the amount
^ It will be shewn hereafter, that in a country replete
with capital, as England is, it is always highly probable that
the rate of wages will be sufficiently ahead of that rate in poorer
countries, to produce a slight inferiority in the rate of profits in
the richer country ; though its productive power be the greatest
and in a state of rapid increase.
R 2
260 Rents.
Book I. of wages on the rate of profits may often escape
^s^Ts" notice. It appears, however, that marked and con-
siderable variations in the rate of profits may be
iKea^of results of changes in the rate of wages alone. It
agricultural foUows, that a fall of profits is no sure indication
Efficiency. ... .
of diminished productive power in any branch of
human industry, and consequently can never be ac-
cepted as a proof of the decreasing efficiency of
agriculture especially.
These propositions, with respect to the influence
of variations in real wages on the rate of profits,
appear to me, I confess, almost too obvious to be
formally stated, had they not been formally denied,
and very extensive consequences founded on the
denial. Mr. Ricardo, and others who have followed
in his track, have believed that they could trace
every possible variation in the rate of profits, to
a decrease in the productive power of agriculture
alone. To establish the truth of this opinion, they
were bound to shew, that no other cause could affect
the rate of profits, and of course that variations
in the rate of wages could not. Their mode of
doing this was sufficiently simple. It consisted in
denying (while treating on profits,) that any such
thing as a permanent change in the rate of real
wages could ever take place.
It would at first sight appear, that profits de-
pend partly on the amount of the produce of labor,
partly on the division of that produce between the
laborers and capitalists; and that their amount,
therefore, might vary from a change in either of
these particulars. If certain laborers, whose wages
Rents. 261
amount to £100., or 100 quarters of corn, produce Book i,
Chap, vi
o6Ct. 9»
£112., or 112 quarters of corn, profits would be *?•"'•
12 per cent.; but they would sink to 10, if wages
rose to £ 102. or quarters, just as certainly as they oeS^of
would if the productive power of the laborers di- Ki^'"™^
minished, and, wages remaining stationary, they only
produced £110. or quarters.
But if it could be proved that the laborers share
was, in truth, invariable, that with the exception
of short intervals of time, they must continue to
receive £lOO. or quarters, and neither more nor less,
it would follow, of course, that all permanent vari-
ations in the rate of profits must proceed from
changes in the productive power of industry alone.
We have already remarked, that a diminution of
profits rarely proceeds from a diminution in the
productiveness of non-agricultural industry, which
may raise the rate of profits, or sustain them when
they are falling from other causes, but can seldom
occasion their retrogression. Were it once admitted
then, that profits never fall from variations in wages,
it would follow that they must usually fall from
a decrease of the productiveness of agricultural in-
dustry. The theory of the permanent immutabi-
lity of real wages, or of the constant sameness of
the quantity of necessaries consumed by the laborers
on which rests this belief of the exclusive agency
of the decreasing powers of agricultural labor in
diminishing profits \ hardly requires a set discus-
' " We have seen, in treating on wages, that they invariably
" rise with the rise in the price of raw produce. It may be
" taken for granted, that inider ordinary circumstances, no
permanent
262 Ile7its.
Book I. giQn to refutc it. It is never adhered to by IVIr. Ri-
Sect. 5. cardo himself, except when treating the particular
subject of variations in the rate of profit. At other
Decre^eof timcs he spcaks, without hesitation, of permanent
Scknc"^' alterations in the condition and habits of the . la-
borer, of variations in the rate of natural and real
wages. But when attempting to simplify his ana-
lysis of the circumstances which influence the rate
of profits, and to reject the agency of all but his
favorite cause, namely, the return to the capital
last employed upon the soil, he goes back to this
position, equally inconsistent with facts and with
his own arguments and admissions ; and asserts,
again and again, that permanent changes in the
rate of real wages never take place, and need never,
therefore, be taken into account in estimating the
causes of the rate of profits.
His defence of this assertion, when it is at-
tempted to be defended, rests on an exaggeration
of some facts connected with the subject of popu-
lation.
Fluctuations in the rate of real wages, do, under
certain circumstances, and to a certain extent, impel
or retard the increase of the numbers of the laboring
population, and by altering their relation to the
" permanent rise takes place in the price of necessaries without
" occasioning or having been preceded by a rise in wages.
" Thus we again arrive at the same conclusion, which we
" have before attempted to establish, that in all countries and
" all times, profits depend on the quantity of labor requisite
" to provide necessaries for the laborers on that land, or with
"that capital which yields no rent." Ricardo, pp. 118, 128.
Rents. 263
funds from which they are supported, react on the ^°°^ f;
rate of wages. From this undouhted fact, many have 5^^^. 5.'
been misled, partly by haste, and partly by over-
strained ingenuity, to draw the wide and very fal- Decrea^ of
lacious inference, that every increase or decrease in J^cfencJ!'
real wages will produce an expansion or shrinking
of the population precisely sufficient to restore, after
(1 time, the relation which existed (before the alte-
ration of wages) between the numbers of laborers,
and the funds for their support, and thus bring
back wages to their former amount.
This opinion of the effects of alterations in
wages, on the numbers of the population, will meet
us again in a part of a subject when it will be more
our business to examine it. At present, without
a more extensive discussion of it, we may appeal
to obvious facts and every day experience. We
see very different rates of real wages prevailing in
countries with similar climates and soils, and some-
times, as in the case of England and Ireland, under
the same government. We observe in the same
countries, alterations taking place from century to
century, and from generation to generation, in the
food, clothing, lodging, habits, and general mode
of maintenance of the people. We have already
seen too^ that a very moderate change in the rate
of wages is sufficient, while the productive power
of industry remains the same, to produce a very
considerable change in the rate of profits: and we
will venture, therefore, at present to assume, without
' See page 257-
264 Rents.
Book t. fuj-^i^ei. argument, that such a permanent rise in the
Sect. 6. rate of real wages is neither impossible nor in:pro-
bable, as is quite sufficient to produce alterations in
■Dtn^toi ^^^ ^^^^ 0^ profits, equal to the differences of that
En?y^ rate in any of the countries of Europe. This will
be enough to support the position we are maintain-
ing, that a fall of profits is never an unequivocal
proof of a diminution in the efficiency of agricul-
ture, because it may proceed from a different divi-
sion, between the laborers and their employers, of
the produce of the national industry, while the
amount of that produce remains unaltered, or is
increasing in all its branches.
An increasing relative Value of raw Produce is
no Proof of the decreasing Efficiency of agri-
cultural Industry.
Among the proofs of a decreasing efficiency in
agricultural industry, the increasing relative value
of raw produce is usually treated as one of the
most decisive. And this, no doubt, would be a
conclusive proof, could we suppose the productive
power of manufacturing industry (meaning all in-
dustry other than agricultural,) to be stationary,
while raw produce was thus rising in relative value.
If 12 quarters of corn are observed to exchange
for 12 pieces of cloth during one century, and in
the next, 12 quarters of corn exchange for 24 pieces
of cloth ; then, if we were sure that no change had
taken place in the expence of manufacturing cloth,
we might very rationally conclude, that the cost
pf producing corn had doubled. But when we take
Rents. 265
into account the very great increase which, from Booki.
,. , , . , ~, . Chap. vii.
time to time, really takes place in the eihciency gect. 5.
of manufacturing industry, the case is altered ; and
we see, that an increase in the relative value of Decre^ of
raw produce is what must be expected, although the ^cienc^
productive power of agriculture were stationary, or
even to a certain extent increasing. For instance,
let two men produce two quarters of corn, and two
men two pieces of cloth and a quarter of corn ; and
a piece of cloth will exchange for each other. Next,
the efficiency of agricultural industry increasing, let
two men produce three quarters of com, and the
efficiency of manufacturing industry increasing yet
more, let two men produce six pieces of cloth : corn
will have risen in relative value ; a quarter of com,
instead of exchanging for one piece of cloth, will
exchange for two. In this case, clearly, we should
be mistaken if we assumed the fact of a decrease
in the efficiency of industry, from that of the rise
of the relative value of raw produce.
In the progress of nations, an increase of manu-
facturing power and skill usually occurs, greater than
that which can be expected in the agriculture of an
increasing people. This is an unquestionable and
familiar truth. A rise in the relative value of raw
produce may, therefore, be expected in the advance
of nations, and this from a cause quite distinct from
any positive decrease in the efficiency of agriculture.
266 Rents.
Book I.
Chap. vii. ^^ increasing Money Value of raw Produce, com^
pared with the Prices of other Countries, is no
Supposed Proof of the decreasing Efficiency of agricul-
agricuiturai tural ludustry.
Efficiency.
There are various causes which may elevate the
raoney value of raw produce; one is undoubtedly
the decreasing fertility of the soil which governs
prices. If, in two neighbouring countries paying
equal wages, the land is such that it requires three
men in the worse to produce the effect which two
men will produce in the more fertile of the two ;
the poorer country will not be able to sell its pro-
duce as cheaply as the richer. Still different prices
are no certain indication of a difference in ferti-
lity. They may proceed from at least three other
and distinct causes. First, from a higher rate of
wages; secondly, from a higher rate of taxation;
thirdly, from a different value of the precious
metals.
Whatever effect on prices may be produced by
the necessity of employing more men in agricul-
ture, will be produced by the necessity of paying
higher wages to the men actually employed, or
of paying higher taxes. When the corn-grower,
getting the same quantity of produce, is obliged to
pay away an additional quantity ; whether the fresh
expence is incurred in the sb.ape of wages to addi-
tional laborers, ox of greater wages to those before
employed, or of heavier taxes, must be indifferent
to him; and as far as the cost of cultivation is
Rents. 267
concerned, it amounts to the same thing. And Book i.
supposing two countries to grow corn at precisely g^^g"*
the same expence of labor and capital, an altera-
tion in the rate of wages, or the amount of taxation, ^^^ of
may raise the cost of cultivation in the one beyond ^''^."''"*^
that in the other, though the dearer country be
stationary, or even (to a limited extent,) improv-
ing in the 'efficiency of its agricultural industry.
There is a third cause also, quite distinct from
the decreasing fertility of the soil, which may in-
crease the prices of raw produce in one country,
while prices in other nations are stationary, and
that is a decreasing value of the precious metals
peculiar to the dearer country. That this is a
cause which has some effect upon the prices of the
different countries of the world, there can be little
doubt. I wish, however, to be distinctly under-
stood, as giving no opinion on the possible extent
or the limits of that effect. The eminent WTiter
I am about to quote first on the point, thinks it
will appear "that far the greater part of the high
" price of corn in this country, compared with most
*' of the states in Europe," is occasioned in this
way. " The causes," Mr. Mai thus says\ " which
" affect the price of corn, and occasion the difference
" in this price so observable in different countries,
" seem to be two. First, a difference in the value
" of the precious metals in different countries under
" different circumstances ; secondly, a difference in
*' the quantity of labor and capital necessary to pro-
* Principles of Political Economy, p. I93.
268 Rents.
Book I. " ducG com. The first cause undoubtedly occasions
Chap. vu. a ^|^^ grcatcst portiou of that inequality in the price
" of corn, which is the most striking and prominent.
Supposed "particularly in countries at a considerable distance
Decrease of 2- ii -.«■
agricultural " irom cach othcr. More than three-fourths of the
"cncy. ^( prodigious difference between the price of corn in
" Bengal and England, is probably occasioned by
" the difference in the value of money in the tv/o
" countries, and far the greater part of the high
" price of corn in this country, compared with most
" of the states in Europe is occasioned in the same
" way." In a note to some fiu-ther observations on
the same subject, Mr. Malthus afterwards says^,
" This conclusion may appear to contradict the doc-
" trine of the level of the precious metals. And so
" it does if by level be meant level of value esti-
" timated in the usual way. I consider that doc-
" trine, indeed, as quite unsupported by facts. The
" precious metals are always tending to a state of
" rest, or such a state of things as to make their
" movement unnecessary. But when this state of
" rest has been nearly attained, and the exchanges
" of all countries are nearly at par, the value of
" the precious metals in different countries, esti-
" mated in corn and labor, or the mass of commo-
" dities, is very far indeed from being the same.'*
Mr. Ricardo has stated similar opinions. " AVhcn
" any particular country excels in manufactures, so
" as to occasion an influx of money towards it, the
" value of money will be lower, and the prices of
' Page jys.
Rents. 269
** com and labor will be relatively higber in that ^°°^ '•
•' ° Chap. vii.
** country than in any other. This higher value sect! 5
" of money will not be indicated by the exchange.
" Bills may continue to be negotiated at par, although Dec^'se of
" the prices of corn and labor should be 10, 20, Sncy?^
"or 30 per cent, higher in one country than an-
" other. Under the circumstances supposed, such
" a difference of prices is the natural order of things,
and the exchange can only be at par when a suf-
ficient quantity of money is introduced into the
country excelling in manufactures, so as to raise
" the price of its corn and labor ^" " In the early
" states of society, when manufactures have made
"little progress, and the produce of all countries
is nearly similar, consisting of the bulky and most
useful commodities, the value of money in different
countries will be chiefly regulated by their dis-
tance from the mines which supply the precious
metals; but as the arts and improvements of so-
ciety advance, and different nations excel in par-
ticular manufactures, although distance will still
" enter into the calculation, the value of the pre-
cious metals will be chiefly regulated by the supe-
riority of those manufactures \" "Of two coun-
tries having precisely the same population, and
the same quantity of land of equal fertility in
" cultivation, with the same knowledge too of agri-
" culture, the prices of raw produce will be highest
"in that where the greater skill and the better
2 Ricardo, 2nd edit. p. l63.
' Ibid. p. 159.
«(
«
270 Rents.
Book I. " machinery is used in the manufacture of export-
?:;Pf "able commodities \"
The admission of the influence of this cause
Supposed Qjj ^jig price of commodities in different countries
Decrease of *
agricultural jg gn uulucky, but Unavoidable bar, it must be
confessed, to any thing like accuracy in an ana-
lysis of the proportions of the different elements
of price in diflPerent nations. There are no very
obvious means of determining to what extent money
prices may be affected by that different level of
the precious metals, the existence of which is here
laid down by the joint authority of Messrs. Mal-
thus and Ricardo. And the attempt to solve the
question, can only be successful, I think, when
founded on an industrious and difficult comparison
of all possible elements of price, distinct from the
local value of the precious metals. But if ceasing
to treat this as a general question, we narrow our
view to the causes which affect the peculiar value
of the precious metals in Great Britain alone, we
may conclude with tolerable certainty, that the low
value of those metals must affect prices here more
powerfully than in any other European country. In
the first place, England is pre-eminent in the art
and means of manufacturing those exportable com-
modities which, according to Mr. Ricardo, tend to
saturate her with gold and silver; and this is not
the only peculiarity which tends to lower the value
of those metals in England. The perfection of the
art of substituting for those metals, and the rapidity
^ Ricardo, 2nd edit. p. 157-
Rents. 271
Book I.
of her circulation, serve to magnify the effects of
the influx produced by her export trade. Let us sect 5.
suppose England and France to require each
100,000,000 for circulation, and each to possess DEseof
that sum. If the English found means to substitute "^^^
paper for 50 of the 100,000,000, then 50,000,000
of bullion would be set free, and would have the
same effect in lowering the value of the mass as
50,000,000 of newly imported metal. If by in-
creasing the rapidity of circulation, 50,000,000
could be made to perform functions which before
required 100,000,000, a similar result would follow,
and the value of the mass be similarly affected.
Now in England, the art of substituting for coin
is carried to an extent unknown elsewhere. Inde-
pendently of the notes of the Bank of England,
and of country bankers, private bills to the amount
of 100,000,000'^ are calculated to be constantly
circulating as cash. The operations of the London
clearing-house are familiar to the public, and are
alone sufficient to diminish, to a very considerable
extent, the quantity of cash required to carry on
the money transactions of the empire. The rapi-
dity, too, of the English circulation, we know to
be unrivalled.
Adding then the effects, of her greater progress
in the art of substituting credit and paper for
coin, and of the greater rapidity of her circulation,
to the results of the superiority of England in
^ See article Credit, Supplement to Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica.
272 Rents.
Book I. the manufacture of commodities for foreign sale, it
sw^t r ^^^ appear that all the causes connected with the
value of the precious metals which tend to pro-
Supposed jjyg^j ^ hish. money value of commodities, are in more
Decrease of O •'
agricultural powcrful actiou hcrc than in any other European
Efficiency. ^ ^ ^
country, and that whatever may be the possible
effects of those causes in lowering the value of the
precious metals, and on money prices, those effects
are likely to be felt more extensively and power-
fully in our own country than in any other.
Leaving the individual case of England, how-
ever, we return to the general proposition, that
abstracting altogether from any difference in the
productive powers of agriculture, the money prices
of raw produce in different countries may vary from
a different value of the precious metals alone.
It has been shewn then, that prices of raw pro-
duce, high when compared with those of neigh-
boring countries of similar soil and climate, may
proceed from three causes acting separately or jointly,
and all of them quite distinct from the decreasing
fertility of the soil, namely, from higher wages,
higher taxes, or a low relative value of bullion ;
the last of which alone a writer of great eminence
has declared to be so influential, that it occasions
*' far the greater part of the high price of corn in
" this country compared with most of the states
"in Europe \" High money prices, therefore, comr
pared with those of the neighboring countries, of
similar soil and climate, cannot be received as any
' Malthus, Principlex of Poliliral Ecnnomy, p. IQ3.
Rents. 273
indication of a decreasing power in the agriculture ^o^"^ '•
« , - Chap. vii.
ot the dearer country. Sect. 5.
We have already seen that neither a low rate
of profits, nor a high value of raw produce, com- ^e^^ot
pared with other commodities fabricated at home, ^^^^
are certain indications of the decreasing productive
power of agriculture. There is a circumstance which
at first sight appears a more sure indication of
such a decrease than any of those we have yet ex-
amined ; an appearance however still fallacious.
When, abstracting from the effects of taxation,
an apparent diminution takes place in the reve-
nues of the producing classes considered jointly,
when there is a fall in the rate of profits, not
compensated by a rise of wages, or a fall of wages
not compensated by a rise in the rate of profits,
there has been, it may be argued, some decrease
in the productive power of labor and capital, and
for the moment we will suppose this argument
sound. When such decrease occurs, it has lately
been assumed as certain, that the failure must have
been in agriculture, and not in manufactures, be-
cause the efficiency of mechanical and manufac-
turing labor usually increases instead of decreasing
in the progress of nations. But this last position
is far from being universally true. The majority
of the nations of the globe are perhaps, at this
moment, improving in manufacturing power, and
there is no physical reason why they should not
continue to improve. But when we take political
and moral causes into our view, the history of the
world forbids us to conclude that the progress of
S
274 Remits.
Book I. mankind in the mechanical and manufacturing arts.
Chap. vii. . m • i -n i * /• •
Sect. 6. IS always necessarily in advance. Ji.gypt, the African
shore of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and the
D^^ of Morea, can aid mechanical industry with but a feeble
^dencyT^ part of the ingenuity or power, which both their
story and their monuments attest that they once
possessed. Capital and science are, in our days,
indispensable assistants to the artizan, and the de-
cay of the domestic arts, and the failing efficiency
of the industry connected with them, must, there-
fore, be expected to come in the train of the evils
which assail the decrepitude of nations, and gra-
dually impair their resources. England is at this
moment the principal theatre of all that power and
skill can effect, in the various departments of human
industry which are distinct from agriculture; and
yet, if days are to come when her freedom, and
wealth, and the many elements of her actual power
forsake her, it is in these departments of industry
that the progress of decay may be expected to ex-
hibit itself the most strikingly. The power of her
artizans, and the wonders of her manufactures, will
assuredly disappear with the capital and science
which now support them. In a nation so circum-
stanced, the means of the population may become
less, and the annual consumption of all classes
shrink, though the efficiency of agriculture should
remain stationary.
We have been arguing on the admission, that
a decrease in the rate either of wages or profits,
the other of the two remaining stationary, is a proof
of a diminished produce and lessened productive
Rents. 275
power in some of the departments of national in- ^*^^ ^•
t . 1 A 1 . . ,1,1 .1. Chap. vii.
dustry ; and have merely attempted to shew, that ^gect! 5.
even with such an admission, an assumption that
the decrease necessarily originates in agriculture, is iS?re°M*of
inadmissible. Hereafter, we shall have occasion to EffidtiT™^
prove, that the admission itself is too large; that
a decrease in the rate of profit w?th stationary
wages, does not of itself indicate any diminution
of the productive power in the population; that it
is even quite consistent with advancing efficiency
in the national industry, and may be accompanied
by a steady increase of the power of accumulating
fresh capital; but the developement of this propo-
sition belongs to another part of our subject.
We have attempted then, as we proposed, to
establish. First, that there is no necessary decrease
in the returns to agricultural labor and capital, as
cultivation spreads to soils of inferior quality, or ex-
tracts a greater produce from the soils already cul-
tivated; and secondly, that several circumstances
usually supposed to indicate the existence of such
a decrease of agricultural power, namely, a fall of
profits, a high relative value of raw produce compared
with other commodities, or a high price of raw pro-
duce at home, compared with that grown in countries
of similar soil and climate, may one and all origi-
nate in distinct and different causes. There remains,
it appears to me, no method of ascertaining the
fertility of the soils, governing prices, which are
actually cultivated in any country, relatively to the
fertility of those cultivated in the same country at
earlier periods, or in other countries at the same
276 Re7its.
^^ ^;. period, but actual comparison. One branch of such
Sect. 5. an enquiry might be difficult : it may not be easy
to compare the costs of production in one century
Decrease of with thosc of another century, in the same country.
^din"y. It is easier to compare, at the same period, the
cost of producing corn in a dear country, with the
cost of producing it in neighbouring countries, in
which it bears a lower price, and has a lower relative
value. It would not be impracticable, for instance,
to take England, and Poland or Germany, and to
make them the subjects of such a comparison, se-
lecting from the poorest soils equal districts of con-
siderable size in each ; (for all observations on small
plots of ground are, for many reasons, fallacious;)
it would be necessary to ascertain (abstracting from
money prices) the quantity of labor and the quantity
of auxiliary capital employed in each country ; and
their respective produce. The result would shew
with sufficient accuracy the productive power of agri-
cultural labor and capital in each country. If it
should appear, that in the country where money
prices and rents are the highest, the labor and
capital employed in agriculture really yield more
produce than similar quantities employed in coun-
tries where the money prices of raw produce are
comparatively low, then we must ascribe the high
prices of the dearer country either to heavier tax-
ation, to higher rate of wages, or to a lower value
of the precious metals, or to the joint influence of
all these causes ; not to the poverty of the soils
brought into cultivation, or to the poor returns to
the doses of capital gradually applied to the old
Rents. 277
soils. And any increase of the revenues of the Book i.
landed proprietors, which may have taken place, ^l^ g"'
must (abstracting from changes in the value of
money) be traced, not certainly to a decrease which De?rea^^of
has not occurred in the returns to agricultural in- ^^[gp"''*^
dustry on the soils governing prices ; but to a gra-
dual increase of produce, common to all soils, but
greatest in amount on the best; and to successive
improvements in the efficiency of agricultural capital.
SECTION VI.
On some Indications of the real Sources of increasing
Rents, which are to he obtained in particular In-
stances, hy observifig. First, the Variations which
take place in the comparative Numbers of the agri-
cultural and non-agricultural Classes ; and. Secondly,
the Alterations which shew themselves iii the Land-
lord's proportion of the Produce.
It has been stated, that nothing short of a pre- '^°°^ i-
cise enumeration of the wages and capital expended ^^ y"'
in obtaining similar quantities of produce, will enable
us to decide, with perfect certainty, upon the com- J^^onl"of"
parative^ actual fertility of the soils which ffovern increased ,
•T J ^ agricultural
. . Efficiency.
^ The comparative potential fertility of soils, that is, the
fertility each would be found to possess after having been
for some time cultivated, with the most and best industry,
skill, and means, is something very different from their com-
parative actual fertility ; a circumstance which should always
be remembered, when t;he policy of cultivating apparently barren
wastes is under consideration.
278 Rents.
Book I. pjiges, either in different countries at the same time.
Chap. vu. * _
Seel. 6. or in the same country at different times. Such
a comparison may be often impossible. Yet in ob-
Two Indi- . ^ . ^ c ^ . . , ^
cations of scrviug the growth 01 the territorial revenues ot
^^Surai a country, we shall naturally be desirous to know,
Efficiency, -^j gycry instance, whether that growth has pro-
ceeded "from the employment of an additional
" quantity of labor with a proportionally less re-
" turn," (Mr. Ricardo's sole cause of rents\) or from
the more genial sources, of increased produce ob-
tained by increased . capital, and improvements in
the efficiency of the capital previously employed.
There are two circumstances which may guide
us in our enquiries on this point, if not to perfect
and conclusive certainty, yet to a high and satis-
factory degree of probability : and these are. First,
the variations which take place in the relative num-
bers of the agricultural and non-agricultural classes.
Secondly, the alterations which may be traced in the
proportion of the produce taken by the landlords.
Indeed, the evidence furnished by these circum-
stances ought to be accepted, as we shall see, by
the school of Mr. Ricardo, as perfect and demon-
strative, although their writings forbid us to sup-
pose that this ever occurred to them.
When, during the spread of tillage, "an ad-
" ditional quantity of labor is employed with a
" proportionally less return," the numbers of the
^ " Rent invariably proceeds from the employment of an
additional quantity of labor •with a proportionally less return."
Ricardo, 1st edit. p. 60.
Rents. 279
agriculturists must be on the increase, compared Book i.
with those of the non-agriculturists. A simple cal- ^^^ g"*
culation will shew this. Let 2,000,000 of culti-
vators produce 4,000,000 of quarters of corn, suffi- ^Jong"^'
cient to maintain 4,000,000 of people : the number increased
/. . . . agricultural
of agriculturists and non-agriculturists in such a Efficiency.
community (abstracting from foreign trade in corn,)
will be just equal. Let the population increase to
8,000,000 : if the fertility of the fresh soils now
cultivated equal the fertility of the old soils, then
4,000,000 of cultivators will be able to produce
food for the 8,000,000 of people, and the relative
numbers of agriculturists and non-agriculturists will
remain as they were. But if to yield the food of
the additional 4,000,000 of people the fresh ground
cultivated requires "an additional quantity of labor
" with a proportionally less return," then a larger
number than 2,000,000 of the increased population
must be employed in producing food for themselves
and the other 2,000,000. Let that larger number
be 3,000,000, and then 5,000,000 of agriculturists
will be employed in producing the food of 8,000,000
of people. The agriculturists constituted one-half
of the population before its increase, they will now
constitute live-eighths of it. And if the numbers
of the community continue to increase, and the
ground from which their additional supplies of food
are raised, continues to absorb "an additional quan-
" tity of labor with a proportionally less return,"
then the numbers of the cultivators must also con-
tinue to increase relatively to the numbers of the
non-cultivators.
280 Rents.
Book I. In the next place, if rents in a country occu-
^^* ""' pied by farmers, should ever rise from that cause
alone, which has been so confidently stated by
Two indi. jyjj.^ Kicardo, to be the sole possible cause of a
cations of ' -T
increaaed risc of rcuts, namely, "the employment of an ad-
agncultural . . .
Efficiency. '* ditioual quantity of labor with a proportionally
"less return," and a consequent transfer to the
landlords of a part of the produce before obtained
on the better soils ; then the average proportion
of the gross produce taken by the landlords as rent,
will necessarily increase. This is almost self-evi-
dent, but it may be as well perhaps to give a short
calculation. Let B, C and Z>, then, be soils cul-
tivated with equal capitals, &c. ; let S produce 12
quarters of corn, Cl4, and Z) 16 ; then, B yielding
the ordinary profits of stock, C will have 2, and
D 4 quarters of corn as surplus profits or rent.
The landlord's proportion of the produce of C and Z>
taken together, will be 6 quarters out of 30, or
one-fifth. During the progress of population, let
it be necessary to cultivate another soil ji, yield-
ing to the same quantity of capital which is em-
ployed on -B, C and D, only 8 quarters of corn.
Then as 8 quarters must now yield the ordi-
nary profits of stock on the capital employed, B,
which before paid no rent, will have 4 quarters
as surplus profits or rent, C 6, and D 8 quar-
ters : and the landlord will take from the soils
paying rents, 18 quarters out of 42, or a fraction
more than two-fifths of their gross produce, instead
of one-fifth, his former proportion. And so pro-
gressively, as additional labor and capital are em-
Rents. 281
ployed in tillage, with a proportionally less return, ^^^^ ^.'
additional portions of the produce of the old soils sect. a.
will continue to be transferred to the landlords as
surplus profits, in order to equalize the profits made cations of'
by all the cultivators; and a larger proportion of '^"^^^i^jj^j^i
the whole produce Avill thus, step by step, assume Efficiency.
the shape of rent\ In any country, therefore, in
which there has been a general rise of rents, pro-
ceeding "from the employment of an additional
" quantity of labor with a proportionally less re-
" turn," and the consequent transmutation of a part
of the produce of the old soils into rent, these
two results must be observable : First, the industry
of a larger proportion of the population must be
devoted to agriculture ; Secondly, the proportion of
the gross produce paid to the landlords, as rent,
must have increased. If these two results are not
observable, these rents must have increased from
some other cause or causes, and not from " the
" employment of additional labor in agriculture
" with a proportionally less return ;" and in that
case, ]Mr. Ricardo and his school must have been
wrong, when they supposed this last to be the only
possible cause of increasing rents.
This reasoning is so obvious, that when brought
^ Mr. Ricardo himself was perfectly aware, (indeed he could
not be otherwise,) that this was a necessary conclusion from
his doctrine as to the one sole cause of augmented rents. " The
" same cause," he says, " the difficulty of production, raises
" the exchangeable value of raw produce, and raises also the
"proportion of raw produce paid to the landlord as rent." —
Ricardo on Political Econony, 2nd edit. p. 71-
282 Renis.
Book I. into coiitact with circumstances as they exist around
c ap. vu. ^^^ result must have served to rouse more wary
Sect. 6. ' , , , , ^
reasoners into an immediate suspicion, or rather con-
Two indi. viction, of the unsoundness of their system. The
cations of ^ _ •'
increased instaucc of our owD couutry, viewed with the assist-
Efficiinc^y. aucc of thcsc principles, is conclusive as to the fact,
that the cause erroneously assumed by Mr. Ricardo
to be the sole source of every rise of rents, cannot
possibly have been in action during the great eleva-
tion of rents which has actually taken place here.
On this point, the example of England is the
more important, because it is there alone we can
observe on a scale large enough to be satisfac-
tory, the progress of farmers' rents, and the con-
nexion of that progress with the fortunes of the
other classes of society.
The Increase of Rents in England has proceeded
from the Increase of Agricultural Produce.
The statistical history of England presents to
us, prominently, three facts ; First, there has been
a spread of tillage accompanied by a rise in the
general rental of the country; Secondly, there has
been a diminution of the proportion of the people
employed in agriculture ; Thirdly, there has been
a decrease in the landlord's proportion of the pro-
duce. No one of these circumstances requires surely
any formal proof That there has been a great
spread of tillage we know. That there has been
a considerable increase in the general rental of the
country, is a fact admitted by persons who hold
Rents. 283
the most opposite opinions as to the real causes of Booe i.
that increase. That there has been a great aug- ^^^' g"*
mentation of the relative numbers of the non-agri-
cultural classes, is a fact almost equally notorious, ^"if^*^ °^
The returns to the two last population acts, prove that f^^^^ '^
this process is still going on. The non-agriculturists creased
in England, amount at present to double the agri-
culturists, a proportion so widely different from that
which prevails in other parts of the world, as to
constitute perhaps the most striking among many
peculiarities in the economical position of the Eng-
lish population. In France, before the Revolution,
the cultivators were as 4 to 1, when compared with
the rest of the people. The progress of the other
classes has, since the Revolution, been extremely
rapid ; instead of one-fifth, they now constitute one-
third of the whole population. France has, with
the exception of England, the largest non-agricul-
tural population of any considerable nation on the
face of the globe. There is no reason whatever
to suppose, that the cultivators of England 300
years ago, were less numerous, when compared with
the rest of the English population, than those of
France are now, compared with the rest of the
French people. The change which has so completely
reversed their relative numbers, and given so great
a superiority to the other classes, has probably been
long in progress, and although we know it lately
to have proceeded with considerable rapidity, those
movements of the different branches of the popu-
lation, by which it has been effected, were proba-
bly, at the commencement, slow; but nothing very
284 Rents.
Book I. exEct Can be ascertained on this point, which is not
Sect e" ^^ ^^^ essential to our present purpose.
The gradual diminution of the landlord's pro-
Eil^fsh °^ portion of the produce has long been notorious. The
Rents is following Statement is from Adam Smith. After
trom in. "
creased asscrting, that in more ancient times, nearly the whole
of the produce belonged to the landlord, he goes on
to say, " In the present state of Europe, the share
** of the landlord seldom exceeds a third, sometimes
*' not a fourth part of the whole produce of the land.
*' The rent of land, however, in all the improved
" parts of the country, has been tripled and qua-
*' drupled since those ancient times ; and this third
" or fourth part of the annual produce is, it seems,
" three or four times greater than the whole had
*' been before. In the progress of itnprovement,
" rentf though it increases in proportion to the ex-
*' tent, diminishes in proportion to the produce of
" the land.'' Various returns made to the Board
of Agriculture shew, that the third or fourth part
mentioned by Adam Smith, as having become in
his time the ordinary share of the landlords in the
produce, is a larger proportion than they now ob-
tain ^ a fact to be expected, if his doctrine, con-
tained in the sentence just printed in Italics, be
correct.
' Some of these returns may be seen in Mr. Lowe's book,
2nd edit. p. 155. It will be observed, that the expenses only
are there compared with the rent ; adding profits on the lowest
possible scale, it will be seen that the rent must have ordinarily
been about one-fifth of the gross produce. Even this exceeds
the usual calculations of some experienced land-valuers.
Rents. 285.
In England then, rents have risen, the pro- Book r.
portion of hands employed in cultivation has be- ^^' g"'
come much less than formerly, and the propor-
tion of the gross produce, taken by the landlord JljJ^^JJ'j^^"^
as rent, has diminished. It follows from the pre- i^^nts is
. from in-
ceding principles and calculations, that the general creased
rise of rents which has taken place, has not "pro-
*' ceeded from the employment of an additional
" quantity of labor with a proportionally less re-
" turn," but from some cause or causes essentially
distinct from that, and attended by opposite re-
sults.
It appears then, as the last result of our ana-
lysis, that the increased rents of this country have
proceeded from better farming and greater produce^
There are persons, no doubt, and more perhaps
among the ranks of the political economists of the
present day than elsewhere, who will disdain con-
clusions so like those of the uninitiated. Those
who have been trained in better schools of reason-
ing, must smile at such a feeling. The enquirer
into the secrets of nature expects with reason that
the progress of his labors will lead to the continual
revelation of fresh wonders : but in ethical and poli-
tical investigations, our general views must, for the
most part, be founded on facts and feelings common
^ To estimate that greater produce fairly, it is always to
be recollected, that we must not confine our views to the
increased corn produce of small spots, although tliat is re-
markable, but must take in the varied produce of consider-
able tracts; or at least, of whole farms.
286
Bents.
Rents is
from in-
creased
Produce.
Book I. to the liuiTian race, and forcing themselves into
Chap. vu. ^ general observation. On these subjects, there-
fore, without shewing any quarter to stubborn pre-
EnTsh"^ judice or brute ignorance, we may still very safely
conclude that there are no symptoms of a false
and diseased spirit of philosophizing so certain, as
a feverish thirst for the stimulus of startling novelty ;
a contempt for obvious truths merely because they
are already familiar; and a disposition to thrust
aside, unregarded and unnoticed, any conclusions
which resemble those to which every day experience
and prompt spontaneous judgements have conducted
the bulk of mankind.
Book I.
Chap, vii
SECTION VII.
The Interests of the Landlord are not in Opposition to
those of the other Classes.
There is great reason to believe, that cases
Sect. 7. very rarely occur, in which the rentals of districts
cultivated by farmers, increase, not because more
Interests of '' i • t r 1 iii
Landlords producc has bccn obtained from the earth, but be-
to thos^e°of cause the share of the producing classes has dimi-
ctlLs. nished with the increasing difficulties of production.
We have just seen, that in England, the only
considerable country in which farmers' rents arc ex-
tensively prevalent, there is strong evidence to shew
that this circumstance has not, in any degree, in-
fluenced the progress of rents. Still it has been
admitted, that in an extreme case, this would be
a possible cause of increased rents ; and the belief
Rents. 287
now widely spread, that it is not only a possible ^^""""Jj.
but an actually operating cause, makes it of some sect. 7-
importance to correct an erroneous impression, founded j^"^^^ ^^
on that belief, that the interests of the different Landlords
not opposed
classes of society may be in permanent opposition to those of
to each other. Mr. Ricardo, who could perceive classes.
no cause from which an increase of the revenues
of the landed proprietors could possibly proceed,
except " the employment of additional labor with-
*' out a proportional return," was led by the unlucky
narrowness of his system on this point, to denounce
the interests of the landlords, as always opposed
to those of every other class of the community'.
While we have been taking a more comprehen-
sive view of the sources of the increase of rents,
and have been shewing the manner in which that
increase necessarily follows the concentration and
improvement of cultivation, we have gathered ma-
terials which enable us to demonstrate the unsound-
ness of this repulsive doctrine. It is true that there
are cases in which the landlords may derive a limited
advantage from circumstances which are diminish-
ing the means of the body of the people ; but their
permanent prosperity, and that gradual elevation
of their revenue which sustains them in their re-
lative position in the community, must emanate
from more wholesome and more abundant sources.
' Ricardo, Essay on the Infiuence of a low price, &c. p. 20.
" It follows then, that the interest of the landlord is always
" opposed to the interests of every otlier class in the conimu-
'« nity."
288 Rents.
Book I. If indeed the being in a position to derive occa-
g^*^' T'' sional gain from the losses of others, were sufficient
to characterize any class of society as having inte-
ilndSs^ rests in permanent hostility with those of their
not opposed countrvmon, Mr. Ricardo, to be consistent and just,
to those of •' , , . . ,
other should havc made his denunciation more general,
and included in it both the capitalists and the la-
borers; for it is not disputed that they too have,
each of them, occasionally, interests which are ad-
verse to those of the rest of the community ; and
that wages may be increased by a decrease of profits,
and profits swelled by the decrease of v/ages, as
certainly as rents may be elevated by encroachments
on the revenues of the producing classes. But if
we were seriously to argue thence, that the interests
0^ ail the different classes of the community are
in constant and perpetual opposition to each other,
tile conclusion would arouse the suspicion of the
most unwary enquirer. The fact is, that the pros-
perity which each class can grasp by the depression
of others, is, by the laws of nature, limited and in-
secure. The advantages which each may draw from
sources of increasing wealth, common to all, or at
least injurious to none, are safe, and capable of
being pushed to an extent of which the limits lie
beyond our experience, or means of calculation.
And in this respect, there is no difference in the
social position of tlie landlords, and that of the
other classes which compose the state.
When the revenues of any one class increase,
tliat increase may in every case proceed from two
causes; first, from an invasion of the revenues of
some other class, the aggregate reveiuic of tiie ^°°^ '•
, . 11 .. <^hap. vii.
state remaining what it was : or secondly, from sect. 7.
increased production, leaving the revenues of all
the other classes untouched, and presenting a clear Landlords'
addition to the aggregate revenue of the nation. ^tE^Sf^
A little consideration will shew us, that it is °J^"
Classes.
only in the last, that is, the most advantageous
manner, that the revenue of any class can increase
progressively and securely in the progress of nations.
We will trace this truth, first, in the case of the
laborers and capitalists, and then in that of the
landlords.
The productive power of a people being sta-
tionary, wages may increase, we know, at the ex-
pence of profits ; or on the other hand, with the
advance of the productive powers of the popula-
tion, wages may increase while profits are undi-
minished. The power of production being stationary,
we have already had occasion to shew how small
an increase in the rate of wages will produce a con-
siderable depression of profits : and we have seen\
that supposing the capital employed to amount to
five times the wages paid, an addition of one single
shilling to every 10*. paid as wages, would lower
profits from 12 to 10 per cent. In the ordinary
state of the world, the further progress of a rise
of wages, attended by such an effect, would soon
cease to be possible. Long before, in any one na-
tion, the rate of profits had, in the course of such
a process, been reduced to one-half their actual
1 See p. 258.
T
290 Rents.
Book I. amouiit, Capital would flow abroad, employment be-
sect. 7. come more scarce, and the rise of wages be stayed.
But if the increase of the rate of wages be accom-
Tnterests of . i ■• t . •
Landlords panicd by a corresponding or a greater increase
to thEf* of productive power, it may go on indefinitely
otiier without any deterioration, possibly with an increase,
of the rate of profits, and of the revenues of the
capitalists ; and need only cease when the pro-
ductive powers of mankind have reached their ulti-
mate limit. It is then, unquestionably, a momentary
advantage to the laborer, that his wages should in-
crease at the expence of the profits of the capitalist.
But his interests, and those of the capitalists, are
not, therefore, in perpetual opposition ; because his
prosperity, if it is to be permanent and progressive,
can only exist under circumstances in which it is
perfectly compatible with the undiminished means
and revenues of his employers.
In like manner, the productive power of labor
being stationary, the rate of profits may rise from
a diminution of wages ; and the capitalists have,
therefore, a momentary advantage in the depression
of the laboring classes. But the arrangements of
Providence are such, that their great and permanent
interests can safely rest on no such gloomy founda-
tion. As the poverty and degradation of the popu-
lation proceeds, the productive powers of the labor-
ing classes, and after a certain point, the security
of property, diminish. We have an example of the
first of these effects in the serfs of Eastern Europe,
and of the last in Ireland. The serf does but oue-
third of the labor of the well paid freeman ; and
Rents. 291
the Irish peasant, on his low wages, works little Book i.
better, if compared either with the English peasant ^^^" ^]'
or with himself when less depressed. But a differ-
ence of two-thirds in productive power, will alone J^Swds"*^
more than balance any difference in the respective "^o* opposed
•^ * to those of
rates of wages, of the best, and of the worst paid other
workmen in Europe. The English capitalists then
would lose by the establishment of a German or
Irish rate of wages, if their workmen were to be
replaced by a race as listless and inefficient as Ger-
man boors or as Irish cottiers in their actual state
of degradation. The inefficiency of the exertions of
the laboring classes is not, however, the only circum-
stance which makes a low and decreasing rate of
wages unfavorable to the permanent prosperity of
the capitalists. The accumulation of large masses
of auxiliary capital cannot go on undisturbed in the
midst of a degraded and turbulent population ; and
it is on the great accumulation of such capital, re-
latively to the numbers of the population, that the
comparative revenues of the capitalists themselves,
and their station and influence on the community,
depend. In England, profits are low and wages are
high, but in no part of the world do the capitalists
form so prosperous and important a body. Their
revenue exceeds that of the proprietors of the soil,
and equals at least half the wages of labor. If
English wages were run down, till the state of the
laborers approached that of the Irish, their discon-
tent and turbulence, added to habits of reluctant
and inefficient labor, would make it neither profit-
able or safe to employ here the mass of capital at
t2
292 Rents.
Book I. present used in production ; and then, in spite of
g^j] r'* a rise in the rate of profits, the mass of profits
realized, and the revenues, influence, and compara-
i!LnSord8°^ tive importance of the owners of capital, must shrink
not opposed ^q dimcusions more nearly resemblinff those of other
to those of _ JO
other countries. Although the capitalists, therefore, may
reap a momentary advantage from the depression
of the laborers, yet their permanent prosperity can-
not rest on such a basis. To proceed securely in
a career of increasing wealth, they must be sur-
rounded by workmen whom penury and degradation
have not made either useless instruments of pro-
duction, or dangerous neighbours. The interests of
the capitalists and the laborers, although they may
be occasionally in apparent opposition, are substan-
tially and permanently in perfect harmony. It is
the interest of each class that the other should
thrive ; and that additions to its own revenue should
be derived solely from an increase in the produc-
tive powers of tlie industry of the country.
The position of the landlords, in this respect,
is similar to that of the laborers and capitalists.
There is a momentary gain, which they may snatch
from the depression of the rest of the community;
but they are not excluded from the operation of
that just and benevolent law of Providence, which
knits together the interests of society by making-
fleeting and limited all advances in the revenues
of any class, which rest on the deprivation of others;
and which permits a career of stable and indefinite
increase, only when the prosperity attained by one
part goes hand in hand with that of all parts of the
Renta. 293
nation. An advance of rents, founded solely on a ?*^"^ ^;
transfer to the landlords of a portion of the produce sect. 7.
before enjoyed by the productive classes, must di-
minish, what without such a transfer would have been, Lan?iord8°
the joint amount of wages and profits. Mr. Ricardo ^'thE?
and his school contend that in such a case, the re- "'^^
' Classes.
venue of the productive classes would become posi-
tively less than it was before ; that the decrease in
the amount of raw produce returned to given quan-
tities of capital and labor, could be balanced by
no increase in the effects of non-agricultural in-
dustry ; and they contend further, that this de-
crease must fall exclusively on the employers of
labor, and diminish the rate of profit, which accord-
ing to them, must vary vdth each change in the
returns to the capital last employed upon the land ;
on which returns they state the rate of profits to
be exclusively dependant'. Were we to concede
the soundness of this view of the case, it would
at once become evident, how very limited the ad-
vantages must be which the landlords could derive
from such a cause. When, in different countries,
which have an easy intercourse with each other,
an ordinary rate of profit has been established, any
peculiar cause which diminishes that rate in any
one country, has a tendency to drive capital to
others. The rate of projfit in England rests at a
point somewhat below that of neighbouring coun-
tries, but if the rate be depressed below this in-
' Ricardo, pp. 118, 128. See the passages before quoted
in the note at page 26I.
294 Rents.
Book I. fgrior point, we know frcmi experience that capital
Chap. vii. . -ha i
Sect. 7. begins to escape very rapidly. A very short period.
therefore, during which only very limited effects
ilndiOTds** could be produced, must put an entire stop to a
to*thS^ rise of rents founded only on a continuous fall of
J*" profits. And the landlords of an increasing coun-
try would soon be redueed to insignificance, were
this the only source on which they could rely for
the advance of their incomes, as the numbers and
wealth of all the other classes were swelling round
them.
To see, however, more distinctly, that the ac-
tual sources of the increase of the revenue of the
landlords are perfectly compatible with the pros-
perity and undiminished wealth of the people, we
must not confine ourselves to so imperfect a view
of the causes of the increase of rents. A diminu-
tion in the share of producing classes in the pro-
duce is, as we must again repeat, certainly a pos-
sible, but as certainly only a limited and very rare
source of an advance of the revenues of the land-
lords; that gradual increase of their means, which
keeps pace with the riches of other branches of the
community, flows from healthier and more copious
fountains.
We have seen that the accumulation and con-
centration of capital, and its gradually increasing
efficiency as the power and skill of man advance,
arc causes of increase in the mass of rents of which
the constant operation is established by the same
laws which regulate the productive powers of the
earth, and the progress of civilized nations in the
Jients. 295
art of cultivating it. But neither the increase of ^^^ *;.
capital, nor the increase of agricultural science and sect. 7.
power, can be rationally expected among a people,
the augmentation of whose numbers is attended at Landlords
every step by an invasion, on the part of the land- 515*2e°of
lords, of the interests of the cultivating classes. A gj*"
rise of rents founded on such an invasion, if it is
injurious to the people, is not less unfavorable to
the progress of the revenue of the owners of the
soil : it presents them with a momentary and limited
profit, while it destroys the hopes of large and
enduring improvement. We saw, when examining
the different classes of peasant rents, that while
they last, the depression of the cultivators stops
the progress of those changes in the forms of tenure
which the ease and interests of the landlords de^
mand should be completed as fast as society is fit
for them ; and when the capitalist enters on the
scene as a distinct character, it is obviously the
interest of the proprietors that every spot of ground
should receive the benefit of all the auxiliary ca-
pital which the wealth of the country can supply,
made more and more efficient by all the skill and
power which intellect, and knowledge, and expe-
rience can create. These are sources of increased
rents which contain within themselves no causes of
stagnation and decay, and which for an indefinite
period may continue to buoy up the revenues and
influence of the landed body, though the numbers
and wealth of the other classes are multiplying
rapidly around them. While these wholesome
causes of increasing rents are in operation, the
296 Rents.
Book 1. power and wealth of the country, we have seen,
Chap. vii. * i i • i •
Sect, 7. niust be advancing, the territory must become ca-
pable of supporting a larger population, and the
Landlords Capital and revenue of that larger population must
"©"tfaJw"^ receive considerable accessions. The circumstances,
J^^^ therefore, which are the most essential to the con-
tinuous prosperity of the landlords, are also most
conducive to the increasing wealth and strength of
the nation. The miserable gains which it is pos-
sible for them to wring from the necessities of an
impoverished people, are not less destructive to their
own prospects of maintaining a permanent and pro-
gressive advance of income, than the same gains are
injurious to the producing classes. Like the other
classes of the community then, they have an in-
terest in diminishing the revenues of those who
share with them the produce of the soil. As in
the case of all the other classes too, their gains
from such a diminution are limited, scanty, and
temporary ; while the permanence and full develope-
ment of their prosperity can only be secure when
it goes hand in hand with the progress of the peo-
ple in wealth, and power, and skill.
It was an error, therefore, to suppose, that there
is any thing peculiar to the landlords in the fact,
that they have occasionally a limited interest op-
posed to that of the other bodies which compose
the state. It was a much graver error which led
men to teach, that their case forms an exception
to that general rule of Providence, which makes
sterile and evanescent all advantages which any one
•class of the community can gain at the expence of
Rents. 297
the others : that they alone have no source of pros- Book i.
perity common to them with the wliole population, ^^^^p- ^"•
and constitute a class marked by the miserable sin-
gularity of having no interests, during the progres- [^"^'^rds"*^
sive advance of national industry and v^ealth, but not opposed
such as are hostile to those of all the rest of man- other
1 • 1 Classes.
kind.
AVe have seen then, that rents may rise from
a diminution in the return to the producing classes
of the capital last employed upon the soil, followed
by a transfer to the landlords of a portion of the
produce of the old soils, sufficient to equalize the
share of the producing classes on all the soils culti-
vated:— that the rent thus generated forms no ad-
dition to the aggregate national revenue: — that it
makes the joint amount of wages and profits com-
paratively less, that is less than it would have been
had no diminution in the return to agricultural
capital taken place: — that no positive decrease of
the joint amount of wages and profits necessarily
follows, because the increasing productive power of
the non-agricultural portion of the community may
balance, or more than balance the decreasing power
of agricultural industry: — that this cause of the
rise of rents is not like the two causes first ex-
amined, constantly in action as nations increase in
wealth and numbers: — that its presence and in-
fluence in the elevation of rents are not proved by
the circumstances usually quoted, as the most cer-
tain indications of its operation: — that where the
rehitive numbers of the non-agricultural classes have
been increasing, or where the proportion ol the pro-
298 Rents.
Book I. ducc takcii by the landlords has not increased, there
^^u 7" ^® ^ strong and decisive reason to believe, that this
cause has contributed nothing to any increase which
£Sdiorfs°^ has taken place in the rental of a country : — finally,
not opposed ^2iX althougli the generation of rents from this parti-
other cular source is prejudicial to the nation, the general
interests of the landlords are not on this account
hostile to the progress of the industry and wealth
of the people, since their continuous prosperity rests
always on other foundations.
We adduced facts and reasons to shew, that
" the employment of additional labor without a pro-
"portional return," has in truth had no share in
elevating the rental of our own country; and have
pointed out that although it is, strictly speaking,
a possible source of inceased revenue of the landed
proprietors, yet it is not, as the establishment of
more efficient and complete cultivation is, a con-
stant and necessary source of such an increase,
wherever the wealth, and skill, and industry of a
body of farmers are progressive.
We are conscious that this peculiar source of
a possible rise of rents has been dwelt on at
somewhat greater length than its relative import-
ance may seem to warrant. The reasons for this
havx; been already intimated. The influence of a
decreasing fertility of the soils last cultivated on
the progress of rents, and the manner in which
the interests of the whole population are affected
by the process, have lately attracted much peculiar
and anxious attention, and become the basis of
much fallacious reasoning and wild spccidation.
Rents. 299
Sir Edward West and Mr. Malthus had pointed ^ook i.
out, that the soils actually cultivated in agricul- sect. 7.
tural countries, were of very unequal quality, and
,,.,./. T 11 Interests of
that the actual prices 01 raw produce were barely Landlords
sufficient, on some lands, to repay the expences of °°'^J^-*^
cultivation with the ordinary rate of profit ; while ^^^
on others, the same prices did this, and left be-
sides a surplus for rent. This fact once seen, it
became evident that the relative value of raw pro-
duce depended not on the average cost of its pro-
duction, but on the cost of producing a particular
portion of it: that to secure the actual supply, the
actual prices must be maintained, and could not
be lessened, even though the rent paid for the better
soils were abandoned to the tenants, or ceased to
exist. It became evident too, that any circum-
stances which made more expensive the cultivation
of the inferior soils used, would not diminish rents,
but would raise prices, since the cultivator of the
land which produced no rent must get his expences
and profit, or the supply would fail and prices rise
from that cause. The developement of these facts
threw considerable light on the circumstances which
determine the exchangeable value of raw produce,
and on the effects and incidence of taxation ; and
opened besides many new views of those subjects.
It is not perhaps surprising, that the two writers
last named, should, in the first ardor of discovery,
have been tempted to push the consequences of the
facts to which they were drawing the attention of
the public, somewhat farther than subsequent and
more comprehensive enquiries would warrant. And,
300 Rents.
Book I. accordingly, both Sir Edward and Mr. Malthus,
se*ct 7." *^*®' pointing out, that as cultivation extends itself.
the capital employed upon soils of different qualities
i^Sorfs" produces very unequal returns, shew an occasional
toffi°^ disposition to take it for granted, that in the pro-
other gress of agriculture, every additional portion of ca-
pital applied to the soils must produce a less return
than that which preceded it: — a distinct and very
different proposition ; entirely without foundation,
when viewed relatively to capital employed in de-
veloping the powers of the old soils; and which,
when confined to the case of capital laid out upon
new and inferior soils, allows nothing for the pro-
gress of human power. The unsoundness of this
assumption has already been pointed out. In the
treatises of Sir Edward West and Mr. Malthus,
however, these opinions were merely exaggerations
of the consequences of an important truth, pre-
sented to the world without being sufficiently sifted.
When adopted by Mr. Ricardo, they became un-
luckily the sole foundation of an extensive system of
political philosophy, embracing the whole subject of
rents, wages, profits and taxes; and attempting to
explain, in a series of logical deductions, drawn from
this narrow foundation, all the causes which in pro-
gress of nations regulate the revenues of the different
classes of society ' . It was of course essential to the
' " In treating on the subject of the profits of capital, it
" is necessary to consider the principles which regulate the rise
" and fall of rent; as rent and profits, it will be seen, have a very
" intimate connection with each other." Ricardo, Essay on the
Influence
Rents. 301
establishment of this system, that every other ap- Book i.
parent cause of increasing rents should be proved ^ i!"'
illusory. Hence the attempts made to deny that
the general increase of the produce of the soil, which }^,Jio^g°^
follows the accumulation of capital upon it, can pos- not opposed
sibly raise rents, or be beneficial to the landlords, other
unless some of that capital be laid out without a
diminished return, and the share of the producing
classes be reduced. Hence, too, similar attempts
to prove that agricultural improvements of every
description, even those by which the expence of
obtaining produce are made less, are, for a time,
absolutely prejudicial to the interests of the pro-
prietors, and only begin to be useful to them when
the cost of getting produce on the soils governing
price has been increased^. From a system which
Influence of low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock, Intro-
duction, p. 1. '•' The general profits of stock depend wholly
" on the profits of the last portion of capital employed on the
" land." Ricardo, Ibid. p. 20. " But I think it may be most
" satisfactorily proved, that in every society advancing in wealth
" and population, independently of the effect produced by libe-
" ral or scanty wages, general profits must fall unless there be
" improvements in agriculture, or corn can be imported at a
** cheaper price. It seems the necessary result of the principles
" which have been stated to regulate the progress of rent." Ri-
cardo, Ibid. p. 22. But those who are at all acquainted with
Mr. Ricardo's writings, will want no extracts to prove to them
the manner in which his notions, as to the one peculiar source
of rents, served as a basis for all his speculations on the distri-
bution of wealth.
^ " If, by the introduction of the turnip husbandry, or by
'* the use of a more invigorating manure, I can obtain the
" same produce witli less capital, I shall lo7ver rent." Ricardo
on
Classes.
302 Rents.
Book I. g^^ ^^ possible modc of increasing; the revenues of
Chap. vii. iijii ^ • ^ /»
Sect. 7. the landlords, which was not founded on a corres-
ponding decrease of those of the producing classes,
ilndJoAs" it followed necessarily that the interests of the
To \hoTof landlords, and those of the other classes of society
"'her were in a state of perpetual hostility. And this
gloomy conclusion assumed a yet darker complexion
when blended with some other errors of the same
school. As all compensation from the increasing
power of non-agricultural industry was overlooked,
the reduction in the returns to agricultural labor
and capital, which according to them follows a peo-
ple in every attempt to increase the quantity of raw
produce obtained from its territory, occasions a posi-
tive decrease in the revenues of the producing classes.
The share of the laborers, they believed to be, ex-
cept of short intervals of time, invariable : the de-
crease of the revenues of the producing classes must
affect, therefore, exclusively the rate of profits. But
as they assumed the people to be fed in all cases
from accumulated capital alone, and capital to be
on Political Economy, 2nd edit. p. 68. The reference to this
strange passage was mislaid, or it would have been quoted
before. Mr. R. proceeds to argue, that in the case he is sup-
posing, land would be necessarily thrown out of cultivation,
" and a different and more productive portion will be that which
" will form the standard from which every other will be reck-
" oned." The reader has seen (p. 240.) in what manner the
introduction of the turnip husbandry, and its gradual spread,
as the numbers of the people were increasing, actually raised
the rental of a great part of England, and pushed tillage to
a variety of soils before uncultivated; many of which also
paid a rent.
Bents. 303
accumulated from profits exclusively, aud the power i^ook i.
of the owners of profits to accumulate, to be depend- g^^t ^
ant on the rate of profit, it followed that at every ■
fall in the rate of profit, the national power of ac- ilndSords**
cumulation was diminished, and a disastrous check "°t2°of
given to the sole means of providing for an in- jijier
creasing population. There is no one of these va-
rious positions which is not partially or altogether
false; but to persons possessed with an opinion of
their truth, the great original error of supposing
every increase of rent to indicate a corresponding
diminution in the returns yielded by agriculture
to the producing classes, seemed to lead at once
to the conclusion, that at every step in the eleva-
tion of rents, the elements of national prosperity
were weakened, and the other classes of the com-
munity exposed to corresponding privations. These
views are embodied in many striking passages of
Mr. Ricardo's writings, which form the framework
of a system erected by him and finished by others
who have adopted his views. Those who will take
the trouble of turning to his publications, will find
him declaring in different passages, some of which
have been already quoted, that the increasing rents
proceed always, not from additional wealth created
on the soil, but from a transfer of wealth which
before existed into the hands of the landlords : that
rent invariably proceeds from the application of addi-
tional capital to agriculture with a diminished re-
turn : that nothing which does not alter the relative
fertility of the lands cultivated can increase rents:
that improvements in agriculture do not increase
304 Rents.
Book I. j-ents* '. that such improvements lower rents at least
s^r* for a time, and lessen the means of the landlords,
their ability to pay taxes, &c. : that increasing rents
J^^,°^ bring no addition to the resources of a country:
not opposed ^^X cverv risc in rents is a mere transfer of value,
to those of ^ n 1 J •
other advantageous only to the landlords, and proportion-
ably injurious to the consumers : and, finally, that
the interests of the landlords are always opposed
to those of every other class in the community".
The erroneous views in which these positions ori-
ginated, proceeded no doubt from imperfect obser-
vation and hasty reasoning; there is no reason
whatever to believe, that they were prompted by
malignity, or put in circulation to create mis-
chief. But, however calm and free from thought
of evil may be the philosophy from which false
political theories are engendered, they are no sooner
afloat and current in the world, than they neces-
sarily come into contact with prejudices and passions
which convert them into sources of very serious
delusions. Mistaken views and excited feelings as
to the sources of the prosperity of the landed pro-
prietors, like those which have lately prevailed in
England, have a double bad effect. They lead
the people to look with jaundiced and angry eyes
upon augmentations in the revenue of the propri-
' See too on this point MaccuUoch.
* " It follows, then, that the interest of the landlord is
" always opposed to the interest of every otlier class of the
" comm unity" Ricai'do, E.isay on the Infltirnce of a Imv Price
of Corn on the Prqfiis of Stock, p. 20.
Ke7ih. 305
etors, which are in truth only so many indications ^^ook i.
and effects of a great and most desirable increase g^^ ^'
in the resources of the country. And when dis-
cussions have arisen as to practical measures, the i^nSords
Interests of
Is
same mistaken views and feelings have evidently ""'^j^^^^^f^
served, first to make one party querulous and angry, "^^r
and then the other, as if in self-defence, suspicious
and reluctant.
SECTION VIII.
Summary of Farmer's Rents.
The fact that these rents prevail almost exclu- ^°°^ ^;
sively in England, is sufficient to fix upon them s^ct! T
earnest attention. They deserve it on another ac-
count. There are indications, faint in some quar- o"f^S's
ters, stronger in others, but discernible in many, ^^"'*'
that the European nations will all, sooner or later,
approach partially, at least, to a similar system.
We have shewn reasons for believing, that their pro-
gress towards it will on the whole be very slow ; but
still it is not the less true that the composition
and capabilities of countries in which farmer's rents
prevail, must be distinctly understood, if we would
thoroughly comprehend either the peculiar econo-
mical condition of our own country, or the probable
direction and character of the future career of our
neighborsr^ It certainly will be wise, while devoting
ourselves to this task, not to repeat an error which
U
306 Re7its.
Book I. has blinded many late writers to truths of a yet
c^p. VII. j^Q^Q general application : which has led them,
while speculating on circumstances peculiar to them-
Summary sclves, somctimcs whollv to neglect those ruder and
of Fanner s ' " ^
Rents. more prevalent systems, the results of which decide
the fortunes and condition of the largest portion
of the human race : at other times, to confound and
confuse things and circumstances essentially dif-
ferent, under the cover of imperfect analogies, made
more illusory by the careless use of general terms,
and idle attempts to reason deductively from them.
We are all, as Englishmen, occasionally more
liable than could be wished, to some of these mis-
takes; we are much too prone to consider the
state of society in which we exist as a type of all
others, and this narrow and mistaken assumption
is necessarily the parent of much ignorance and
many errors. England is, in fact, at the extreme
end and verge of the economical career of nations,
as far as that career is yet known ; at a point not
yet reached by any other considerable community ;
and one which has placed her in a position, if
not more desirable, yet very different from theirs \
We see men here, in agriculture as well as in all
the other branches of human industry, aiding their
native powers of production by the use of an un-
usually large mass of accumulated stock, which the
^ I ought, perhaps, to except the Low Countries; but I
shall have occasion -to shew hereafter, that although fanners
rents prevail extensively in those countries, their economical
position is still very different from that of England.
Renh. S07
skill and invention of successive venerations lias ^^^^ \-
11 J n 1- Chap. vn.
been tasked so to apply, as to add gradually but gect. 8.
constantly to the productive powers of the existing
race. This capital, and the power it has created, in o^fIS^m'
their separate application to the art of agriculture, ^"'*-
enable the soil to support a population, of which the
whole amount is triple that of the cultivators. The
owners of an imposing mass of accumulated force,
themselves maintain and employ the whole of the in-
dustrious population ^ The proprietors of the soil
are no longer exclusively either rulers in peace, or
leaders in war, and are not the direct sources of
subsistence to any part of the population. The
nation is influenced by revenues, as it is governed
by institutions, in estimating which, the landowners
appear only as a part. The national territory, and
the estates of the proprietors of land, preserve of
course precisely the same extent, while the wealth
and numbers of classes wholly independent of the soil,
are swelling and multiplying almost indefinitely.
Are the fortunes of the landowners in the mean
while stationary? Do they sink gradually into in-
significance? Do they cease to occupy a useful
and prominent station in the community? None of
these things happen. By the consequences of a part
of the physical constitution of the earth, from the
effects of which communities of men could not escape,
were they perverse enough to wish it, the landed body
preserves a wholesome and modified, though no more
an exclusive influence ; and its members remain
* Exclusive of menial servants, of course.
u2
308 Rents.
Book I. important elements of a society, in which they are
^sm r "® longer dominant. As the knowledge and skill of
the cultivators discover the means of applying a
of F^r'8 ^^^^ portion of the increasing capital of the com-
^^^' munity to the important purpose of bringing into
play the latent powers of the soil, and of enlarging
the means of supporting a growing nation, a new
species of rent exclusively prevails : the fresh power
thus applied, forcing greater results from the better
soils, produces a fund which forms no part of the
ordinary remuneration, either of the laborers who
till the lands, or of the capitalists who maintain,
direct and assist them, and when once identified
with this ftind, of which we have seen that the pro-
gress and amount are quite indefinite, the incomes
of the landlords continue progressive with the ad-
vancing resources of the country. It is thus that
that inequality in the productive powers of different
portions of the earth's surface, which at the com-
mencement of the agricultural labors of mankind,
exercises no perceptible influence on the origin or
on the forms of rent, and but little on its varia-
tions, shews at last its peculiar importance; and
during the matured and improved advance of na-
tions, is sufficient of itself to secure for the landed
body, a steady and necessary, though a limited and
innoxious advance of their incomes.
We have already seen the utter fallacy of the
notion, that this progress must be attended at every
step with a decrease in the productiveness of the
soils which govern prices, or with a consequent
pressure on the means of any class of society.
Rents. 309
Book I.
Observations on some circumstances in the actual Chap. ▼«.
position of England. Secu^.
X • ii- !•-/•/• A'. Position of
In surveying this subject of farmers rents, it England.
is not easy, perhaps it is not desirable, to avoid
quitting the contemplation of them in a general
and abstract point of view, for the purpose of ap-
plying the principles which arise out of that survey
to the case of England, and to the peculiarities of
its actual condition : and meaning to steer as clear
as possible of every thing commonly called politics,
there are a few observations of this description which
I cannot turn aside from making.
It is, we have seen, on the increasing wealth
and progressive skill of the agricultural capitalist,
tbe farmer, that the steady progress of the landed
body is independent. Not a step can be made in
agriculture, not one improvement, not a single por-
tion of new power introduced into the art of culti-
vation, which does not, if generally adopted, by its
unequal effects over the surface of the country, raise
the mass of rents. The property and the energy and
mental activity of the farmers, are thus the main-
stay, the sole permanent reliance of the landlords.
Every circumstance which diminishes the means,
the security, or the hopefulness and energy of these
agents of cultivation, must be proportionably detri-
mental to the best interests of the proprietors. I
think there is little doubt, that if the changes and
fluctuations which have occurred since the peace, had
not crippled the means and damped the enterprise of
the farmers, they would, by spreading improved
310 Rents.
®**' ^- modes of cultivation to large districts, as vet imper-
Chap. vii. . j i • «
Sect 8. vious to them, and by a continuous progress of
power and skill, have produced a considerable mass
England, of producc Tcuts which do not now exist. The
non-existence of these is unquestionably a serious
and gratuitous misfortune to the proprietors: perhaps
the greatest they have experienced; for had it not
occurred, their incomes, in spite of the altered
circumstances of the country, might have been
buoyed up to something like their former level.
But proprietors do not suffer alone, when the
national progress in developing the powers of its
soil is stayed and thwarted by the farmers being im-
poverished and disheartened. The non -agricultural
classes suffer in their turn, and that in a manner,
and to an extent, which is not the less formi-
dable, because it is not easy accurately to track the
loss in its progress and diffusion, or to measure its
precise amount. It is probable, that after allowing
for their own consumption, the value of the pro-
4 duce bartered by the agriculturists with the non-
agriculturists is not 'less than 100 millions. This
fact is well adapted to shew the mutual depen-
dence of the two great classes of the state. Let
us suppose, that scared by losses and apprehensions,
the farmers withdraw one fourth of their annual
expenditure from the task of cultivation. This is
a process, which every one acquainted with country
business will know might be quietly, and almost
imperceptibly effected, by using less labor, or by
farming less highly in a variety of ways. If a pro-
portionate diminution in production- were to follow,
Rents. 311
and consequent on that, a similar diminution in ^°°^ '•
the home traffick between the agriculturists and sect. 8.
the non-agriculturists, the decrease in the demand
for the produce of the industry of these last EngS°
would be considerably more than equivalent to the
decrease of demand, which would follow the de-
struction of one half the whole foreign trade of
the country. I do not say that such a case either
has occurred, or is likely to occur, although I have
heard some strong opinions on that subject from per-
sons well entitled to be listened to with attention;
but an effect much less than this, would unquestion-
ably be more than equal to the sudden and com-
plete stoppage of the most important branch of our
export trade ; and an effect even greater than this,
would certainly follow any sudden and violent
attack upon the means of the farmers. The re-
sults of any decrease in the domestic demand
would be spread over a larger surface; and would
therefore be less intensely felt on any one point,
and create less concentrated clamor; than the re-
sults of a decrease to a similar extent, when felt
in the export market alone; but it would be an
obvious delusion to suppose, that the resources and
prosperity of the whole body of non-agriculturists,
would not be affected to precisely the same extent
in the one case as in the other.
It is difficult not to believe that part of the
distress which seems to have lighted from some
mysterious cause on many classes of the commu-
nity, is to be traced to the imperceptible con-
traction of this part of the home demand. There
312 Rents.
Book I. are persons doubtless who think, that any pos-
g^^* J"' sible reduction of home, may be compensated by
the extension of foreign, demand. This, in practice,
]to*Und ^^ ^^ **"^y ^^^^ ^^ ^ certain extent ; but this question
would provoke discussion, and we will suppose it
true to any extent. Still it is clear that foreign
demand is not likely to be suddenly created, to
counteract the effects of sudden contractions of the
domestic traffic ; and that therefore a period of con-
siderable distress and languor, perhaps ruin and
calamity, must follow all such contractions.
It is the evident interest of the non-agricul-
turists then, that whatever changes take place in
foreign demand, the home market should be pros-
perous, because it is their largest market; and
that it should not vary, because such variations
must affect their own prosperity. If the un-
checked career of the farmers is essentially con-
nected with the prosperous fortunes both of the
landed proprietors, and of the non-agricultural
classes, it must obviously be closely connected with
the prosperous fortune of the nation; and no plan
of legislation can be sound and wise, which does
not cautiously avoid any measures likely to destroy
either the means or the spirit of the agricultural
capitalists. Now considering how many interests
are bound up in the results of wise and cautious
legislation, whenever the interests of the agricul-
tural capitalists are concerned, it is singularly un-
lucky that such a question as that of the " Corn
Laws" should exist, which seems fated never to be
approached without provoking an angry and head-
Rents. 313
long spirit in one great division of the nation, ^°°^ f-
and a most mischievous temper of fear and de- ^^i 8.
pression in the other division. Yet it is admitted,
that in the present financial situation of the country, ESgiaSd."
com laws of some description must exist. Nor is
there in truth any great dispute ahout the main
principle : the establishment of a " Protection from
peculiar burthens" is what all profess to be con-
tent with.
But here the real difficulty of the question
begins; what are the peculiar burthens sustained
by the agriculturists? and it is because I can
point out two important measures, the effecting
which would go far to remove the difficulty of
deciding this question, or at any rate would make
that difficulty less decisive and important, that I
have ventured into this digression.
There are two payments made by the farmer,
which while they remain in their present state,
will continue to confuse the subject so much, that
neither party to the discussion is likely to be
satisfied; and these are Tithes and Poor Rates.
The real incidence and the effects of both of these, we
shall explain more at large when speaking of taxation.
The incidence of tithes is certainly in every par-
ticular instance a question which involves some
statistical difficulties, not because the principles
which enable us to determine the question are ab-
struse or obscure, but because that incidence is
different, in countries differently circumstanced as
to the actual position and state of their agricul-
tural population. In the particular case of England,
314 Rents.
Book I. however, — in the first place it can be made abun-
SecL 0, dantly clear, that tithes, when first created, must
-7; — have been in the then circumstances of the English
England, populatiou, meant to act as a rent charge; and in
the second place it seems agreed on all hands,
not only that tithes should be put upon such a
footing as to be no real burthen on agriculture; to
cause no addition to the growing price of produce ; but
further, that they should be placed upon such a foot-
ing, that it may be palpable and clear to all branches
and classes of the population on and off the land, that
they are not such a burthen, and do not cause such
an addition. Now this can only be effected by a
general commutation. What has passed in Par-
liament may be taken as a proof, that the leaders
of the Church are perfectly willing to co-operate
in the adoption of any rational plan of this kind :
should the legislature set about the task, with a
serious conviction of its usefulness and importance,
and intrust the execution of it to the hands of
persons acting on sound views, and in a frank and
honest spirit of conciliation, its very few difficulties
would quickly disappear. On the immense im-
portance of such a change in a political and re-
ligious, as well as in an economical point of view,
it cannot be necessary to enlarge.
The poor laws present a much more pressing
and alarming mass of evil, as they do also much
more serious difficulties. In the first place, the
effects of the poor laws as a mere economical evil,
as affecting the interests and calculations of the
farmer, and the growing prices of corn, are consi-
Rents. 315
derably underrated. These laws are first, a burthen ^°^ ';
the direct and indirect pressure of which, it is gect «"
difficult for the farmer himself to calculate; and
which it is probable therefore, that in all cases he England"^
exaggerates; and in the next place they form
a much more, a very much more, serious addition
to the necessary price of agricultural produce in
England, than a mere arithmetical calculation
would lead us to conclude they did: and they do
this, because their pressure is unequally distributed,
and falls by far the most heavily on those poorer
soils, the expence of cultivating which must in the
long run, (abstracting from the effects of foreign
importation) determine the average prices of raw
produce. This circumstance alone forms a suffi-
ciently urgent reason for attempting such altera-
tions as might get rid of this unnatural, and cer-
tainly not desirable, interference with the level of
English prices.
But all merely economical considerations really
sink into utter insignificance, when we turn to the
fearfid mass of moral and political mischief which
they have brought into action \ It is not too much
to say, that they have thoroughly destroyed the hap-
piness of the agricultural peasantry, and corrupted
their habits as laborers and as men. These effects
^ It is from no theoretical views that I speak, but from an
intimate and assuredly a most painful experience, when I say
this. I ought, however, perhaps to mention, that my personal
experience has been confined to the agricultural laborers, and to
the counties of Kent and Sussex.
316 Rents.
Book I. }jave shewn themselves but too distinctly. The
Chap. vii. -, •,. •, i i i
Sect. 8. late disturbances among that peasantry only sheer
ignorance could attribute to any peculiar actual
En^d.° pressure. The temper, and feelings, and delusions
in which they originated, have been forming for
some time. The outbreak might have been foreseen
by all (and it was foreseen by some) familiar with
the practical working and results of the system :
and unless that system be annihilated, or at least
essentially and fundamentally altered, those dis-
turbances will, it may confidently be expected from
the nature of the case, have been neither the last,
nor the most dangerous. And still, evil and dan-
gerous as they have been, they were only one
effect and indication of the miserably distorted
and irritated feelings of which they were the re-
sult. The legislation of the country on this sub-
ject has been bad, and deserves unquestionably
much of the blame which has been shifted to the
shoulders of those who have administered its re-
gulations. But neither, certainly, has their admi-
nistration been blameless. Bad laws have laid the
foundation ; and then, sometimes by bad manage-
ment with very good intentions, and sometimes by
bad management with very questionable intentions,
the poor have gradually been brought into a con-
dition in which they are led to attribute unhe-
sitatingly every privation and every disappointment
to those neighbors, under whose control they find
themselves, and who are to them the visible source
of all the good and evil of their lot. When men
arc in this position, the consequences arc most
Rents. 317
fatal, though most natural. Can we wonder that ^^^^ ^■
their tempers had become soured, and their views sea' a''*
of what is reasonable and unreasonable, of what is
right and wrong, perverted? The fact is, that E^bSd."
there had been for some time spreading through
this class of our population an angry spirit of dis-
like to their immediate superiors, the most dan-
gerous germ of political disorder; and in the mean
time their own principles and habits have assumed
a character, over which it is impossible not to
mourn ; which far-seeing persons may easily trace
back to causes over which the poor themselves
had no control; but which is extremely ill calcu-
lated to conciliate the confidence, or the good will,
or forbearance, of those who have to deal with it;
and tends therefore by its consequences to perpe-
tuate and increase distrust and ill will between the
laborers, and those who have the management of
them and of their fortunes.
We have had from these causes a painful in-
stance of the connexion of economical and moral
evil. The moral havoc has indeed been complete.
The honesty of the laborers, their self respect,
their value for their character as workmen, all
hope of bettering their condition in life by good
conduct, industry, and prudence; their sense of
their mutual duties and claims as parents and
children, all feelings and habits in short, that con-
tribute to make men good citizens, and good men,
have been undermined and impaired, or utterly
destroyed.
No remedy for these evils in the condition of
the poor deserves the name of a wise and states-
318 Rents.
Book I. manlike measure, which is not of a nature suffi-
gg^'g" ciently comprehensive, to offer some promise of
bringing healing and health to all these diseased
EngS."*^ points. I do not know that such a remedy need be
despaired of: the plan of using allotments of land
for such a purpose, has been sufficiently discussed
and tried, to enable us to judge of its capabilities.
If the country was enabled, by the necessary mo-
difications of the existing laws, and by some new
ones, to adopt that plan efficiently into general prac-
tice, it might enable the agricultural districts, not
merely to palliate the actual pressure, the threaten-
ing danger, from the poor laws ; but to do what
must be effectually done, if the moral mischief is
to be eradicated; and that is, to annihilate the
connexion between the able bodied laborers and
those laws, altogether, and for ever\ In the mean
time, it would be a dangerous experiment for the
governors of a state so situated, to fold their hands
and wait for what is to happen next. The slow,
and too often perplexed and thwarted progress of
^ Individual impressions upon a subject of such mighty
national importance, I am aware do and ought to count for
but little; but as I have been led to the subject, it may not
perhaps be presumptuous to state, that my awn observations
have led to a strong belief, that such a plan might be devised
and carried with cheerfulness and popularity into general ex-
ecution ; and this, with very desirable economical, as well as
most important moral and political effects. And that, if regu-
lated and executed under the guidance of sound views, and
with reasonable precautions, it need not be feared that the
many good effects of such a plan would be marred by the
results of the principle of population, or be neutralized by
any train of accompanying evils.
Rents. 319
individual efforts, can lead to no general results of ^°°*^ \-
sufficient power to arrest in time the progress of y^^j' g
the moral pestilence which has long been pursuing
our footsteps, and is already breathing on our necks. Entk^d"
Legislation must be resorted to, and that, compre-
hensive and decisive, as the occasion demands; but
carried on (it need hardly be said) in a spirit as
calm and benevolent as it is firm and decided : and
guided ever, it may be hoped, by the great aim, of
promoting the comforts and happiness of the labor-
ing class, as the best and surest foundation of the
prosperity and peace of the nation at large.
I must add, while on this subject, that no plan
for extinguishing the claims of able bodied laborers
on their parishes, will appear to me either just or
expedient, which is not calculated to place them
not only ultimately, but at every step of the change,
in a position, not merely as good as that in which
they are now, but better. Without forgetting or
palliating their actual faults, still we should re-
member, that the miserable system by which their
better principles, and in some measure their free-
dom of body and mind, have been bartered as it
were piece-meal for doles from the poors'-rate, was
neither devised nor desired by them: and it will
be in vain and unjust to call upon them to make
efforts to disentangle themselves from its effects,
except they can distinctly see that it is not risk
or loss or suffering, but gain and reward, which
are proffered to them.
It will be recollected, that the tithe and poor-
laws have only been considered here as bearing on
320 Rents.
Book I. ^hc general question of the corn -laws ; and through
g^ct! 8. that question, on the harmony of the agricultural
and non-agricultural classes, and on the uninter-
Engiand." Tuptcd perception by both of them, of their common
and inseparable interests. To return then more dis-
tinctly and exclusively to this point of view. If we
suppose the tithes commuted, and the poor-rates
done away with, or reduced to a very small sum,
then the farmer, in estimating his peculiar burthens,
would be relieved from a feeling of indefinite pres-
sure, and from many vague fears of risk and loss,
which are kept alive and irritated by the existence
of those payments in their present state. This ef-
fected, a scale of duties might probably be devised,
which should be both fixed and moderate. Till
this is done, it is very much to be feared that no
cora-laws, which are really equitable, will ever ap-
pear to the farmer to give him sufficient protection :
while the non-agricultural classes will be but too
easily persuaded, that they add exorbitantly and
unjustly to the price of provisions. The ceaseless
collision of such opinions will necessarily keep on
foot hostile and angry feelings, and be destructive
of that confidence and frank co-operation between
the different orders and classes of the community,
without which, in times of peril, and even in
times of peace, a state is shorn of more than half
its strength.
But a fixed and moderate duty permanently es-
tablished', and angry feelings on the one side, and
' It will again be remembered, that I consider the com-
mutation of tithes, and change of poor-laws, essential preli-
minaries
Rents. 1321
exaggerated fears of change on the other, finally ^"""^ ';
quelled, the farmer might once more begin gra- gcct. s.
dually to accumulate, and gradually to find new
modes of employing fresh quantities of capital. The England."
consequences of a diffused and skilful employment
of such fresh farming capital, have already been
pointed out. England offers still a large field for
agricultural enterprize and improvements. The best
methods of cultivation already known, extend to no
great proportion of her surface ; and when these
have been generally diffused, the career of the cul-
tivators may still be for ages progressive. Superior
as the English agriculture is, there are many indi-
cations that it is still only approaching, that it is
far from having reached, the term of its power. The
introduction of mechanical or chemical forces which
will displace much of the animal power now used;
the discovery of fresh and more prolific grasses and
vegetables to be cultivated by the plough or spade ;
the gradual breaking up of much of the ground
over which cattle now roam ; the raising a greater
proportion of the more valuable crops, which contri-
bute directly or indirectly to human subsistence;
and a general advance in the efficiency of the many
aids to human labor used by the husbandman; —
these are all improvements, the gradual establish-
ment of which it is so far from extravagant to
minaries to this measure. No allowance in the rate of duty
for those payments, as they are at present assessed, will, I
fear, ever produce any thing but dissatisfaction in any class
X
322 Hetits.
Book I. expcct, that it is perhaps more like extravagance to
SeX g" doubt that many of them are close at hand.
One effect of such new power gained by agri-
E^^'k^d.*^ culture, will unquestionably be the reclaiming and
gradually fertilizing a considerable portion of the
large part of the soil of the country which is now
unproductive : and while the grappling with the wild
land, and the multiplication of means and power
on the old, are going on, we may, judging of the
future from the past, rationally hope that the power
of agriculture will be increasing, and that the popu-
lation of the country will be maintained by the ex-
ertions of a diminished proportion of its laborious
hands. It has been already pointed out, it is hoped
with sufficient clearness, that during such a pro-
gress, the mass of rents must be constantly increas-
ing. In a country cultivated by farmers, with every
forward movement of the people in numbers, wealth,
knowledge and skill, the landed body, borne up by
the swelling wave, will be lifted to a station in
which their means and influence will be adapted
to the fresh position of the population. The causes
of this advancement are deeply seated in the phy-
sical constitution of the earth. The funds which
support it are injurious to no class: they cannot be
destroyed or lessened: their existence and increase
arc secured by the same unfailing laws which regu-
late those unequal returns, which the varied surface
of the earth must ever make to the labors bestowed
upon it. The enduring interests of the landed pro-
prietors are thus indissolubly bound up and con-
nected with the means, the enterprize, and the
Rents. 323
success of the agricultural capitalists. Temporary Book i.
advantages in their bargains with their tenantry, ^^* '"'
or in their arrangements with the state, are to them -!
objects necessarily of inferior, sometimes of only S"**^**^
illusory benefit. The fortunes, the station, the
comparative influence and means of their order, are
always therefore best guarded and preserved by
them, when, keeping aloof from all that may em-
broil or hinder the general progress of the nation
in wealth and skill, they use their individual in-
fluence, and their political functions, to promote
such systems only of national policy and finance
as are just and moderate; likely, therefore, to be
steady and durable, and to leave a free course to
those wholesome causes which promote their own
peculiar interests, only as identified vdth those of
the nation.
Conclusion.
The task of observing the revenues annually
derived from the soil by its owners, is finished.
We have marked the laws which determine the
amount of rents under all their many forms and
characters. We have traced them to their origin,
in the early appropriation of the soil ; in its power
to yield more to the rudest efforts of man than
the bare sustenance of its cultivators; and in the
necessity which, in the infancy of agricultural com-
munities, binds the peasant to the task of tilling
the earth, because it is thus only that he can earn
the food on which he is to exist. We have fol-
lowed them afterwards to those more limited spots,
324 Rents.
Book I. jn which an advan'te in the state of society, and
SMt 8 ' *^® introduction of a body of agricultural capitalists,
(not necessarily dependent on the soil for subsist-
Conciusion. gjice,) have limited rents to those surplus profits,
which can be realized on particular spots of ground.
Perhaps this is the place to notice an attempt, which
it has been suggested to me may still be made, to
reduce all rents to rents of this last description.
Those, it has been said, who maintain that rents
always consist in unequal returns to equal portions
of capital, and in such unequal returns alone, may
still refuse to admit, that the history which has
been given of the nature and origin of peasants'
rents, is any refutation of their narrow system. I
should not have anticipated such an attempt: but
I can conceive it possible.
There often exists unquestionably among the
labor or produce rents paid by every class of pea-
sant tenantry, a portion of the payment, which may
be traced to the superior quality of some parts of the
soil. The landlord of a serf peasantry gets more
labor from the same space when the land is good,
than he does when it is bad. The landlord of ryots,
metayers, or cottiers, finds his produce or money
rents greater on the good soils, than on the infe-
rior. We have already seen, however, that such
a difference has nothing to do with the origin, or
with the form of such rents, and exists as a quan-
tity unknown or unobserved by those who pay, or
those who receive them, amidst the action of the
causes which have been pointed out as practically
determining their variations. There is one very
Rents. 325
limited and peculiar form of society, in which this ®°°* \
difference does afford a correct measure of the rents g^^.^ g *
paid by the agricultural capitalists, who constitute
the body of the tenantry. But, out of the peculiar Co'''^""^"-
rents paid in these limited districts, first to form
a narrow definition of the word rent, and then to
attempt forcibly to include under this word, the pay-
ments made by the tillers of the earth over the whole
of its surface, is to attempt to make the realities of
things bend and circumscribe themselves within the
more manageable but arbitrary compass to which
we may wish to confine our reasonings: it is to
abandon the task of observation by which our know-
ledge should be earnt, that we may create an un-
real foundation for systems, which, as far as they
profess to be general, must necessarily be visionary
and false; which can be serviceable only in the
work of amusing ourselves and deluding others ;
and must end in leaving us ignorant of the origin,
progress, and effects, of the relations between
landlord and tenant, over ninety-nine parts in a
hundred of the cultivated globe. I need not, I
hope, press this point farther. The whole of these
pages present the proper answer to such an at-
tempt. They have effected little, if they have
not shewn, that it is by no such puerile efforts to
make reasoning supply the place of knowledge,
that we can gather practical wisdom from enquiries
into the economical condition of the great family
of mankind.
The existence of the revenue which is derived
from lands forms, in the very dawn of civiliza-
326 Rents.
Book I. tion, the most important element of its progress,
s^t g"' It is the fund from which communities derive
their ornaments and their strength. It supplies
Conclusion, g^^tes with leaders in war, and rulers in peace;
gives birth to the useful and the elegant arts ;
and yields, directly or indirectly, those means and
opportunities of leisure, which are the parents of
literature, and of all accumulated and transmitted
knowledge.
If the existence and general progress of rents
is identical with the extent and growth of the
sources of civilization, their peculiar forms exer-
cise a no less dominant influence on all the most
important distinguishing characteristics of nations,
and of classes of nations. Nor is this the case
only in the infancy of communities ; we have al-
ready seen, that with the exception of our coun-
try, and of one or two others, all, even the lead-
ing people of the earth, are still agricultural;
that is, by far the largest portion of their indus-
trious population is employed in agriculture ; and
we have too, good reason to believe, that their
condition in this respect will change slowly, where
it changes at all. But among nations so situated,
(forming the majority of the inhabitants of the
world) so it is, and ever must be, that the pro-
ductive powers of their population, their joint wealth
and strength, the elements of most of their poli-
tical institutions, and of many of their moral cha-
racteristics, can only be understood and weighed,
after a thorough investigation into the habits, the
ties, the relations, the revenues, to which the oc-
Rents. 327
cupation of the land they exist on has given birth, Book i.
and which it continues to maintain. It is from J''^' I"'
beet. 8.
such an investigation alone therefore, that we must
acquire the power of estimating the actual condi- Conclusion.
tion, or of judging of the future prospects, of the
majority of our fellow men.
Of the great leading divisions, which separate
the agricultural nations of the earth into distinct
masses, I have attempted to draw a distinct out-
line. There are, however, probably, within the
limits of each division, instances of exceptions and
modifications, which may have escaped my notice,
and which exercise some influence over the circum-
stances and institutions of individual communities.
If I should succeed in directing the attention of
others to the points which I have pointed out as
important in the tenures and habits of agricultural
nations, some account of those modifications will
probably be hereafter supplied. In the mean time,
as I am conscious that the wide outline I have
drawn, and such details as I have introduced, are
faithful and impartial, I cannot and do not
doubt, that the progressive supply of detailed in-
formation, will confirm the principles which I have
pointed out, v/hile it may probably modify and
correct, to some extent, their local application.
The rents paid by the smallest, but to us the
most interesting class of tenantry, agricultural
capitalists, or farmers, I have treated with Mr.
Malthus and others, simply as surplus profits.
The view, however, taken here of the different
modes by which these surplus profits may increase
Conclusion
328 Rents.
Book I- and accumulate on the soil, is, I believe, new.
Secu T. Certainly it is cheering, and strips away at once
all that was harsh and repulsive, in the false
aspect lately so laboriously given to the causes and
sources of increase in this class of rents.
During the progress of the whole subject, ab-
stracting from all difference in the forms of rents,
and in the character and the relations between
the cultivators and proprietors, one great truth has
been placed, it is hoped, on the secure foundation
of a patient and copious induction. I have had
pleasure in introducing the evidence of it wherever
it has occurred, and I shall conclude with it. In
no one position of society^ during no one period
of the progress of civilization^ do the real interests
of the proprietors of the soil cease to he identical
with those of the cultivators, and of the commu-
nity to which they both belong. But even this
truth itself, if the views which I have, with some
labor, arrived at, do not deceive me, will, in the
future progress of our subject, appear to be in-
cluded in one yet more cheering, because more
comprehensive ; namely, — that all systems are essen-
tially false and delusive, which suppose that the
permanent gain and advantage of any one class
of the community, can be fouuded on the loss of
another class: because the same providence which
has knit together the affections and sympathies of
mankind, by so many common principles of action,
and sources of happiness, has, in perfect consist-
ency with its own purposes, so arranged the econo-
mical laws which determine the social condition
Rents. 3iJ9
of the various classes of communities of men, as ^"^"^ ^
to make the permanent and progressive prosperity j^ct. «"
of each, essentially dependent on the common ad-
advance of all. conclusion.
Note. It has been suggested' to me, that I have hardly
dwelt enough on the possibility of confounding the character
of the Ryots as tenants, and their claims as hereditary occu-
piers of the soil. I have adtled a note, VIII. in the Ap-
pendix, in which this point is considered, with a particular
reference to Col. Tod's late work on Rajast'han.
APPENDIX.
S
APPENDIX.
Note to Preface, p. xx.
Herschel on the Study of Natural Philosophy. Lard-
ner's Cabinet Cydopcedia, No. 14, p. 67 We have thus
pointed out to us, as the great, and indeed only ulti-
mate source of our knowledge of nature and its laws,
EXPERIENCE ; by which we mean, not the experience of
one man only, or of one generation, but the accumu-
lated experience of all mankind in all ages, registered
in books or recorded by tradition. But experience
may be acquired in two ways : either, first, by noticing
facts as they occur, without any attempt to influence
the frequency of their occurrence, or to vary the cir-
cumstances under which they occur; this is ouserva-
TiON : or, secondly, by putting in action causes and agents
over which we have control, and purposely varying their
combinations, and noticing what effects take place ; this
is EXPERIMENT. To thcsc two sourccs we must look as
the fountains of all natural science. It is not intended,
however, by thus distinguishing observation from expe-
riment, to place them in any kind of contrast. Essentially
they are much alike, and differ rather in degree than in
kind ; so that, perhaps, the terms passive and active ob-
servation might better express their distinction ; but it
is, nevertheless, highly important to mark the different
states of mind in inquiries carried on by their respective
aids, as well as their different effects in promoting the
progress of science. In the former, we sit still and listen
to a tale, told us, perhaps obscurely, piecemeal, and at
long intervals of time, with our attention more or less
awake. It is only by after-rumination that we gather
(4)
A P 1' K N U 1 X .
its full import; and often, when the opportunity is gone
by, we have to regret that our attention was not more
particularly directed to some point which, at the time,
appeared of little moment, but of which we at length
appreciate the importance. In the latter, on the other
hand, we cross-examine our witness, and by comparing
one part of his evidence with the other, while he is yet
before us, and reasoning upon it in his presence, are
enabled to put pointed and searching questions, the answer
to which may at once enable us to make up our minds.
Accordingly it has been found invariably, that in those
departments of physics where the phenomena ai'e beyond
our control, or into which experimental enquiry, from
other causes, has not been carried, the progress of know-
ledge has been slow, uncertain, and irregular ; while in
such as admit of experiment, and in which mankind have
agreed to its adoption, it has been rapid, sure, and steady
Pasre 6.
o
Narrative of a visit to Brazil, Chili, Peru and the
Sandwich Islands, during the Years 1821 and 1822, by
Charles Farquhar Mathison, Esq. p. 449- — The King
then is a complete autocrat — all power, all property, all
persons are at his disposal : the chiefs receive grants of
land from him, which they divide and let out again in
lots to their dependants, who cultivate it for the use of
the chief, reserving a portion for their own subsistente.
The cultivators are not paid for their labour, nor, on
the other hand, do they pay a regular rent for the
land. They are expected to send presents of pigs,
poultry, tarrow, and other provisions, to the chief,
from time to time, together with any little sums of
money which they may have acquired in trade, or any
other property which it may suit the fancy or the
APPENDIX. (;j)
convenience of the great man to take. This arbitrary
system is a sad hindrance to the prosperity of the tenant ;
for if he is disposed to be industrious, and bring his
land into good cultivation, or raise a good breed of live
stock, and becomes rich in possessions, the chief is soon
informed of it, and the property is seized for his use,
whils.t the farmer loses the fruit of all his labours. This
state of things, as between the King and his chiefs, is
little more than theoretical; but as between the chiefs
and their dependants, it exists mischievously in practice:
hence the great stimulus to industry being removed, the
people live and vegetate, without making any exertions
beyond what the command of the chief and the care of
their own subsistence force upon them. One day in a
week, or a fortnight, as occasion may require, the tenants
are required to work upon the private estate of the chief.
I have seen hundreds — men, women, and children, at once
employed in this way on the tarrow plantations : all hands
turn out, for they assist each other in a body, and thus
get through the work with greater expedition and ease.
When a kanaka, or tenant, refuses to obey the order
of his chief, the most severe and summary punishment
is inflicted on him, namely, confiscation of his property.
An instance in point happened to occur while I was
staying at Why-aronah. Coxe had given orders to some
hundreds of his people to repair to the woods by an
appointed day to cut sandal -wood. The whole obeyed
except one man who had the folly and hardihood to
refuse. Upon this, his house was set fire to, and burnt
to the ground on the very day : still he refused to go.
The next process was to seize his possessions, and turn
his wife and family off the estate ; which would inevitably
have been done, if he had not allowed discretion to take
the place of valour, and made a timely submission, to
prevent this extremity. It has been before said, that
no compensation is made to the labourers for their work,
except a small grant of land. This, however, does not
(6) Al'PEN'JilX.
prevent the chief, if kindly disposed, from distributing
supplies of maros, tappers, cloth, &c. gratuitously among
them. I have heard that Krimakoo once distributed
no less than three thousand blankets among his people.
The King exercises absolute dominion over the sea as well
as over the land ; and in the same way lets out the right of
fishery along the coast to his chiefs.
' Ibid. p. 382. — At six o'clock we reached a small village
about a mile from the sea-shore, and easily obtained a
tolerable hut to pass the night in : it belonged to an
English sailor, who had established himself here. He
received us with great civility, and killed a pig for our
supper, which, when baked, together with tarrow-root,
furnished a very excellent repast.
Ibid. p. 383. — The English sailor informed me that all
the land in his neighbourhood belonged to Krimakoo, the
King's Minister, familiarly called Billy Pitt, who had given
him sixty acres. On part of this he made a tarrow-planta-
tion, which afforded the means of living ; but the rest, he
said, was useless. He seemed wretchedly poor; wore an
old shirt and trowsers, more ragged and dirty than can be
well conceived, and was so disfigured by a thick black
beard of several weeks growth, that he was really far more
savage looking than any of the islanders.
Without placing much dependence upon the statement
of this poor fellow, I was still interested by what he told
me, and pitied the abject condition of dependence upon
savages, to which he was now reduced. Among other
causes of complaint, he inveighed bitterly and with truth
against the tyranny of the chiefs, who claim a right to
possess all private property which is acquired upon their
estates, and seize every thing belonging to the poorer
classes for which they feel an inclination. He said that
whenever an industrious person brought more land into
cultivation than was necessary for his subsistence, or reared
a good breed of pigs and poultry, the chief, on hearing of
APPKXIUX. (^)
it, had no hesitation in making the property his own.
This takes place, independent of the customary presents
and tribute ; even every dollar obtained by traffic with
strangers must be given up, on pain of the chiefs dis-
pleasure. Europeans are subject to the same oppression .
and from this general insecurity of private property, arises
in a great degree the absence of much industry or improve-
ment, both among them and the native peasantry.
Ibid. p. 412 On the evening of the same day, I bade
adieu to Governor Coxe, as he was styled, and went to
visit an American sailor, who had been established upwards
of five years in this island, and cultivated a small farm be-
longing to that chief. His property consisted of a few
acres of tarrow-plantations, in the midst of a fine orchard
of bread-fruit and other trees, with pasturage for a large
herd of goats ; and these, in addition to some pigs and
poultry, rendered him rich in the eyes of all his neighbours.
His cottage was well built, and being furnished with mat-
ting, we passed the night very comfortably in it. He liked
his situation altogether, and thought it very preferable to
a seaman's life ; but complained, nevertheless, of the in-
secure tenure by which property is held in this country.
He told me, as others had done, that he was afraid of
making any improvements, and putting more land into
cultivation, lest his prosperity should excite the cupidity
of the chief, who would not hesitate, if he chose it, to
appropriate the whole to himself. As it was, he had to
bear every sort of petty exaction, according to the caprices
of the chief, on the instigations of his advisers, and only
retained possession of his property by acceding to every
demand, and propitiating with continual presents, the
favour of the great man.
Ibid. p. 427 — Menini was supposed to be worth thirty
or forty thousand dollars, amassed during a residence of
thirty years in the country: but he held his property by
(») APPENDIX.
rather a feeble tenure, namely, the King's good will and
pleasure; and might at any moment be deprived of it,
without the possibility of obtaining redress.
II. Page 10.
Emigration Report of June 1827, p. 397- — Are you
aware of the terms upon which land is now granted to
settlers in the colony of New South Wales .'' — I under-
stand there has been an alteration lately ; that alteration
I am not aware of.
The present system is, that a price is placed upon the
land as wild land ; for example, 200,000 acres would be
valued at 18d. an acre, that would make the total grant of
the value of £ 15,000. ; then, upon that <£ 15,000., five per
cent, would be charged at the end of seven years, redeem-
able at any time at. a certain number of years' purchase;
consequently, for such a grant as you contemplate, a rent
of £,150. a year would be demanded, which rent would
be redeemable at any time by payment of the capital of
£ 15,000. ; at the same time, it is not the custom to make
grants larger than 10,000 acres.
III. Page 21.
Travels from Vienna through Lower Hungary, by
Richard Bright, M.D. p. 114. — But, if the landlord have
reason to be little satisfied, still less can the peasant be sup-
posed to rejoice in his situation. It can never be well, to
make the great and actually necessary part of society, — the
labouring class, — dependant on the chances of a good or bad
harvest for its existence. A man of capital can bear, for
a year or two years, the failure of his crops ; but, let a cold
east wind blow for one night, — let a hail storm descend, —
or let a river overflow its banks, — and the peasant, who has
nothing but his field, starves or becomes a burthen to
his Lord. Of this I have seen actual proof, not only
APPENDIX. (9)
in the wine districts of Hungary, in which the uncer-
tainty of the crop is extreme, but in some of its richest
plains, where I have known the peasantry, full three
months before gathering in, humbly supplicating the
landlords to advance them corn on the faith of the coming
harvest. These are evils always liable to occur, sup-
posing the peasant were allowed to cultivate his lands
without interruption. But is this the case.'' The Lord
can legally claim only one hundred and four days' labour
from each in the year; yet who can restrain him if he
demand more .'' There are a multiplicity of pretexts
under which he can make such demands, and be sup-
ported in them. The administration of justice is, in
a great degree, vested in his own hands. There are
many little faults for which a peasant becomes liable to
be punished with blows and fines, but which he is often
permitted to commute for labour. In fact, these things
happen so frequently, and other extorted days of labour
which the peasant fears to refuse, occur so often, that
I remember, when in conversation with a very intelli-
gent Director, I was estimating the labour of each pea-
sant at 104 days, — he immediately corrected me, and said
I might double it. If, however, the Lord, or his head
servants, have too much feeling of propriety to trans-
gress against the strictness of the law, they can at any
time call upon the peasants to serve them for pay ; and
that, not at the usual wages of a servant, but about
one-third as much, according to an assessed rate of labour.
Add to all this, the services due to the government, —
remember, too, that cases occur in which a peasant is
obliged to be six weeks from his home, with his horses
and cart, carrying imperial stores to the frontier, — and
then judge whether he is permitted to cultivate, without
interruption, the land which he receives, as the only
return for his labour.
(10) APPENDIX.
IV. Page 85.
Burners View of thePresent State of Polafid^ p. 85. —
When a young peasant marries, his lord assigns him
a certain quantity of land, sufficient for the maintenance of
himself and family in the poor manner in which they are
accustomed to live. Should the family be numerous, some
little addition is made to the grant. At the sanie time, the
young couple obtain also a few cattle, as a cow or two,
with steers to plow their land. These are fed in the
stubble, or in the open places of the woods, as the season
admits. The master also provides them with a cottage,
with implements of husbandry, in short, with all their little
moveable property. In consideration of these grants, the
peasant is obliged to make a return to the landholder of one
half of his labour ; that is, he works three days in the
week for his lord, and three for himself. If any of his
cattle die, they are replaced by the master ; a circumstance
which renders him ncffliffent of his little herd, as the death
or loss of some of them is a frequent occurrence. Wlien
a farmer rents a farm, the villages situated on it, with their
inhabitants, are considered as included in the contract ;
and the farmer derives a right to the same proportion of
the labour of the peasants for the cultivation of that farm,
as by the condition of their tenure they are bound to yield
the lord. If an estate be sold, the peasants are likewise
transferred, of course, with the soil, to a new master, sub-
ject to the same conditions as before. The Polish boors,
therefore, are still slaves ; and relatively to their political
existence, absolutely subject to the will of their lords, as in
all the barbarism of the feudal times. They are not pri-
vileged to quit the soil, except in a few instances of com-
plete enfranchisement; and if they were, the privilege, for
the most part, would be merely nominal : for whither
should they go .'' They may retire, indeed, into the re-
cesses of the forest, where it is possible they may not be
traced ; and it is probable, that in times past many re-
sorted to this expedient to escape from the cruelties of a
A P P K N D I X .
(11)
tyrannical master. To fly from a mild master would be
obviously against their interest. To quit the territory of
one grandee for that of another, must commonly, if not
always, have been impracticable : for what landholder
would choose to admit a fugitive peasant, and thus en-
courage a spirit of revolt ? Again, it is not in their power,
from the circumstances of their condition, to sell their
labour indifferently to this or that master ; and if such ob-
stacles did not oppose, the very extent of the Polish farms,
and the consequent want of a second contiguous employer,
would suffice in most cases to preclude a change of masters.
It is said that a few of the peasants improve the little
stock which is committed to their management, accumu-
lating some small property ; but their conduct is far more
frequently marked by carelessness and a want of forecast.
Instances, however, of this accumulation, begin to multiply :
for one effect of the partition has been, that the peasants
are less liable to be plundered. Generally speaking, it
does not appear that this allowance of land and cattle either
is, or designed to be, more than enough for their scanty
maintenance. I was once on a short journey with a noble-
man, when we stopped to bait at the farm-house of a village,
which I have before mentioned as a common custom in
Poland. The peasants got intelligence of the presence of
their lord, and assembled in a body of twenty or thirty, to
prefer a petition to him. I was never more struck with
the appearance of these poor wretches, and the contrast of
their condition with that of their master. I stood at a dist-
ance, and perceived that he did not yield to their supplica-
tion. When he had dismissed them, I had the curiosity to
enquire the object of their petition; and he replied, that
they had begged for an increased allowance of land, on the
plea that what they had was insufficient for their support.
He added, " I did not grant it them, because their present
allotment is the usual quantity ; and as it has sufficed
hitherto, so it will for the time to come. Besides, (said
he,) if I give them more, I well know that it will not, in
reality, better their circumstances."
(12) AVPKNDIX.
Poland does not furnish a man of more humanity than
the one who rejected this apparently reasonable petition ;
but it must be allowed that he had good reasons for what
he did. Those degraded and wretched beings, instead of
hoarding the small surplus of their absolute necessities, are
almost universally accustomed to expend it in that abomi-
nable spirit, which they call schnaps. It is incredible what
quantities of this pernicious liquor are drunk, both by the
peasant men and women. I have been told, that a woman
will frequently drink a pint, and even more, at a sitting,
and that too in no great length of time. I have myself
often seen one of these poor women led home between
two men, so intoxicated as to be unable to stand. There
can be no question, that the excessive use of this whiskey
(were it not to libel whiskey thus to style it) ought to be
enumerated among the chief proximate causes of the defi-
cient population of Poland. It is indeed so considered by
the Poles ; and the Count Zamoyski has lately established
a porter brewery in Galitzia, in the hope of checking
eventually so hurtful a habit, by the substitution of that
wholesome beverage.
The first time I saw any of these withered creatures,
was at Dantzic. I was prepared, by printed accounts, to
expect a sight of singular wretchedness ; but I shrunk in-
voluntarily from the contemplation of the reality ; and my
feelings could not be consoled by the instantaneous and
inevitable reflection, that I was then in a region which
contains millions of miserable beings of the description of
those before me. Some involuntary exclamation of sur-
prize mixed with compassion escaped me. A thoughtless
and a feelingless person (which are about the same things)
was standing by. " Oh sir ! (says he) you will find plenty
of such people as these in Poland ; and you may strike
them and kick them, or do what you please with them, and
they will never resist you ; they dare not." Thus, this
gentleman, by the manner in which he spoke, seemed to
think it a sort of privilege, that they had among them a set
APPENDIX. (13)
of beings on whom they may vent with impunity the ex-
uberance of their spite, and gratify every fitful burst of
capricious passion. Far be it from me, to ascribe the feel-
ing's of this man to the more cultivated and humanized
Poles; but such incidental and thoughtless expressions
betray but too sensibly the general state of feeling which
exists in regard to these oppressed men.
Some few of the boors are found about every large
mansion. They are employed by the domestics in the most
dirty menial offices. These have never any beds (however
mean) provided them ; so that in the summer-nights, they
sleep like dogs, in any hole or corner they can find, always
without undressing. But the winter's cold drives them
into the hall, where they commonly crouch close to the
stoves which are stationed there. H^re, too, several of the
domestics spread their pallets, and take up their night's
abode. Frequently, as I have retired to my room after
supper, I have stumbled over a boor sleeping at the foot of
the stairs — a curious and a melancholy spectacle ! to see
these poor creatures, in all their unmitigated wretchedness,
lodging in the halls of palaces !
In giving orders or directions of any sort to these
torpid beings, though the sentiment of the speaker be not
disgraced by the slightest admixture of unkind feeling, it
is customary to address them in a certain smart and striking
manner ; as if to stimulate their stupid senses into sufficient
action to prompt the performance of the most ordinary
offices. There is no circumstance more deplorable in sla-
very than that dead-palsy of the faculties, which bereaves
its possessor even of the comfort of hope ; or capacitates
him only to hope that he may live without torment, and
mope out his existence in joyless apathy ! If to a conti-
guous person you give utterance to any compassionating
remark, you are commonly answered with the most in-
different air imaginable, " It is very true ; but they are
used to it ;" something in the same way, I have thought,
as eels are used to skinning alive.
(14) A I'I'K N l> I \.
Ibid. p. 84 Their diet is very scanty; they have
rarely any animal food. Even at the inns, in tiie inte-
rior of Poland, which are not situated in a pretty good
town, scarcely any thing is to be procured. Their best
things are their milk and poor cheese, were they in suffi-
cient abundance ; but the principal article of their diet is
their coarse rye-bread above mentioned, and which I have
sometimes attempted in vain to swallow.
Ibid. p. 102 Till the reign of Casimir the Great, about
the middle of the fourteenth century, the Polish nobles ex-
ercised over their peasants the uncontrouled power of life
and death. No magistrate, not even the King himself, had
authority to punish or restrain barbarities which outraged
humanity. If an act of brutal cruelty were committed by
one grandee on the slave of another, he was then liable to
be called to an account by the possessor, as the violator of
his property, not as the perpetrator of crime. This barba-
rous power in the nobles over the condition and lives of the
boors, even Casimir was forced to recognize in the year 1366.
Yet Casimir had a soul which felt for their hard lot, and
he earnestly endeavoured to mitigate its severity. The pea-
sants, finding him their friend, would often go to him with
complaints of the injuries they received. " What ! (says
he with indignation on these occasions) have you neither
stones nor bludgeons with which to defend yourselves .f*"
Casimir was the first who ventured to prescribe a fine
for the murder of a peasant. And, as it had been the
custom, on the death of a peasant, for the master to seize
his trifling effects, he also enacted, that on his decease his
next heir .should inherit ; and that if his master should
plunder him, or dishonour his wife or daughter, he should
be permitted to remove whithersoever he pleased. He even
decreed, that a peasant should be privileged to bear arms
as a soldier, and be considered as a freeman.
These humane regulations, however, were ill observed
in the sequel ; for of what avail arc laws, if authority hi'
APPENDIX. (15)
wantinjr to enforce obedience P There is an ancient Polish
maxim, " That no slave can carry on any process against
his master ;" and hence the law regarding the inheritance
of property was rendered nugatory. Nor could the fine
for murder be often levied, by reason of the accumulation
of evidence required for the conviction of a noble. Yet
these were the only attempts to better the condition of the
boors, till the year 1768, when a decree passed by which
the murder of a peasant was rendered a capital crime. But
even this enactment was a mere mockery of justice: for to
prove the fact of murder, a concurrence of circumstances
was made necessary, which could rarely have been found
to co-exist. The murderer was not only to be taken in
the fact ! but that fact was required to be proved by the
testimony of two gentlemen, or four peasants ! These in-
significant edicts, rendered inefficient by the power of
custom, were not the only obstacles to the elevation of the
peasantry to the rank of men. There existed, in the Polish
laws, numerous and positive ordinances, as though expressly
designed to perpetuate slavery. Among these, the most
oppressive seems to have been that which empowered the
nobles to erect summary tribunals, subject to no appeals,
by which they inflicted whatever penalties they thought
proper on delinquents, or those whom they chose to con-
sider as delinquents. The penalties for elopement from
their villages were peculiarly severe ; which proves at once
the grievousness of their oppression, and the existence of
frequent attempts to escape.
Ibib. p. 110. — Whoever casts his eye but for a moment
on the miserable boors of Poland, will instantly feel, that
ages must elapse before they can be raised to the rank of
civilized beings. If met in the winter's snow, they appear
like herds of savage beasts rather than companies of men ;
but with the melancholy difference of being totally desti-
tute of that wild activity which characterises savage nature.
Their coarse mantles ; their shrunk and squalid forms :
(16) APPENDIX.
their dirty, matted hair; their dull, moping looks, and
lifeless movements; all combine to form an image which
sickens humanity, and makes the heart recoil even from
its own horrid sympathy !
Ibid. p. 105. — Some endeavours have been likewise
made by individuals to abolish the slavery of the boors.
In the year 176O, the Chancellor Zamoyski enfranchised six
villages in the palatinate of Masovia. This experiment has
been much vaunted by Mr. Coxe as having been attended
with all the good effects desired; and he asserts that the
Chancellor had, in consequence, enfranchised the peasants
on all his estates. Both of these assertions are false. I en-
quired particularly of the son, the present Count Zamoyski,
respecting those six villages, and was grieved to learn, that
the experiment had completely failed. The Count said,
that within a few years he had sold the estate, as it was
situated in the Prussian division, with which he had now
no concern. He added, I was also glad to get rid of it,
from the trouble the peasants gave me. These degraded
beings, on receiving their freedom, were overjoyed, it seems,
at they knew not what. Having no distinct comprehension
of what freedom meant, but merely a rude notion that they
may now do what they liked, they ran into every species
of excess and extravagance which their circumstances ad-
mitted. Drunkenness, instead of being occasional, became
almost perpetual ; riot and disorder usurped the place of
quietness and industry ; the necessary labour suspended,
the lands were worse cultivated than before ; and the small
rents required of them they were often unable to pay. Yet
what does all this prove .'* that slavery is better than free-
dom for a large portion of mankind ? horrible inference !
But it proves decisively, what has been often proved before,
that we may be too precipitate in our plans of reform ; and
that misguided benevolence may frequently do mischief,
while it seeks only to diffuse good.
In all instances of failure relative to the proposed
benefit of human beings, the great danger is, lest we should
• APPENDIX. (17)
relax in our efforts, and conclude that to be impossible,
which, in fact, our deficient wisdom only had prevented us
from effecting.
Ibid. p. 109. — The present Count Zamoyski, son of the
late Chancellor, in no wise disheartened by his father's mis-
carriage, continues to meditate exteqsive plans of improve-
ment relative to his own peasantry- But he is now aware
that he must proceed with caution, and not by attempting
too much, end in doing nothing. He designs to emancipate
the whole of his vassals gradually; to give them slight
privileges at first, and to encourage them with the hope of
more, on condition of proper conduct. In short, his prin-
ciple is to retain the power of reward and punishment com-
pletely in his own hands, that he may be able to stimulate
to industry by the hope of new favours, and to restrain
from misconduct by the threatened forfeiture of those al-
ready conceded; till their state, gradually ameliorated,
shall render it safe to give them entire freedom, and to
leave their conduct to be regulated by the general operation
of the laws.
Ibid. p. 121 — The cultivation of the soil in Poland,
in the manner it is there conducted, is attended with little
trouble and expence ; indeed, far less than it ought to be.
We no where see more than a ploughman with his plough
and a single pair of small bullocks, not bigger than English
steers, to produce a fallow. There is scarcely such a thing
as manure to be seen, and the produce is proportionally
small.
Ibid. p. 124. — The territory of a nobleman, the extent
of which I had an opportunity of ascertaining with some
exactness, is about five thousand square miles; which
produces an income of about 100,000 ducats, or J" 50,000.
sterling: this gives only .£'50. a year for every twenty
square miles.
b
(18) APPENDIX. •
V. Page 40.
State of the Poor from the Conquest to the Reformatioriy
by Sir F. M. Eden, Bart. Vol. i — Of the domestic com-
forts enjoyed by the great body of the people, in the periods
immediately subsequent to the Conquest, we may form a
tolerable estimate, notwithstanding the great deficiency of
evidence to mark the manners of private life, from con-
sidering the information afforded us by historians con-
cerning their political situation. If we except the baronial
proprietors of laud, and their vassals the free tenants and
socmen, the rest of the nation, for a long time after this
era, seems to have been involved in a. state of servitude,
which, though qualified as to its effects, was uniform in its
principle, that none who had unhappily been bom in, or
had fallen into, bondage, could acquire an absolute right
to any species of property \
The condition, however, of the people, who were thus
debarred from tasting the first of social blessings, was
not, in other respects, equally abject and miserable : those,
denominated villeins in gross, were at the absolute dis-
posal of their lord ; and were transferable by deed, sale,
or conveyance, from one owner to another. Thev were
principally employed in menial services about the house,
and were so numerous as to form a considerable branch
of English commerce. An author, who lived in the reign
of Henry the Second, informs iis, that such a number
of them was exported to Ireland, that the market there
was absolutely glutted; and another declares, that from
the reign of King William the First to that of King John,
1 Litt. ^. 177. This was also the case in Scotland: "Na bondman
" may buy or purches his libertie with his awin proper gudes or geir —
" because all the cattell and gudes of all bond-men are understand to be
" in the power and dominion of the maister : swa that without consent
" of his maister, he may not redeme himself out of bondage with his awin
"proper denires or money." — See the Regiam Majestatem ; or the Auld
Lawen of Scotland, Buke II. Chap. 12.
APPENDIX. (19)
there was scarcely a cottage in Scotland that did not
possess an English slave. These were probably the cap-
tives taken in the predatory inroads on the borders : there
can be little doubt but that the English retaliated on
their neighbours, and made slaves of such of their Scotch
prisoners as could not pay for their ransom. In the
various accounts of the marauding expeditions of the
moss-troopers of Cumberland, men are often mentioned
as the principal part of the booty they brought back.
Villeins regardant were those who were annexed to
manors, and bound to perform the most servile offices
of agricultural labour, which was originally unlimited,
both with regard to its quality and its duration. They
however were sometimes permitted to occupy small por-
tions of land to sustain themselves and their families,
but were removable at the lord's pleasure, and were liable
to be sold, with the soil to which they belonged ; from
which they might also at any time be severed. I have
made this distinction between villeins in gross, and vil-
leins regardant, as it is laid down by our lawyers and
historians. It may, however, I think, be doubted, whe-
ther the difference in their condition was more than nomi-
nal. The villein regardant seems to have been occasionally
employed as a domestic, as well as an agricultural slave:
and although he was generally indulged by his lord in
the use of a few acres of land, he was liable to be called
upon to perform every species of work, however pain-
ful or degrading. Other ranks of men, equally servile
and dependent, are noticed in ancient records; particu-
larly the Bordarii, who, in consideration of their being
permitted to occupy a small cottage, were bound to pro-
vide poultry, eggs, and other articles of diet for the
lord's table: and the Cottarii, or Coterelli, who appear
to have been much on the same footing with villeins re-
gardant, being employed in the trades of smith, carpenter,
and other handicraft arts necessary in the country ; in
which they had been instructed at the expence of their
b2
(20) APPENDIX.
masters, and for whose benefit they pursued their several
occupations.
After the Conquest, various causes co-operated not
only to prevent the introduction of a new stock, but also
to extinguish the ancient race of villeins. As it was the
custom of enslaving captives taken in war, that was pro-
bably the foundation, and certainly the support, for many
ages, of this not more iniquitous than impolitic system ;
so it seems that the disuse of the ancient practice of con-
verting captivity into slavery, led the way to its ultimate
abolition : and, although history is silent on the subject,
I should imagine, that, after the introduction of the
Norman line, no Englishman could be a slave, unless
by birth or confession. These were the only sources of
supply ; but they continued, for a long time, sufficiently
copious to involve the labouring classes of the commu-
nity in a bondage, that was marked by every essential
ingredient of slavery.
Ibid. p. 13 Between the Conquest and the reign of
Edward the Third, there arose a middle class of men, who,
although they did not immediately acquire the full power
of bartering their labour to the best bidder, were, yet not
subjected to the imperious caprices of a master, and the
unconditional services of personal bondage. Of this de-
scription were the servile tenants of manors, who, although
they were permitted to occupy small portions of land
for their own use, were required, at stated periods of the
year, to attend to the cultivation of the demesnes of their
lords. Previous to the reigns of Henry the Third, and
Edward the First, they are not much noticed in ancient
records ; but in the period immediately subsequent, on
every occasion, when it became important for the lord to
inquire into the state of his manors and their appendages,
the value of his arable and pasture land, the number 6f
his parks, his fish-ponds, his mills, and his mansion-
houses, were not more minutely investigated, than the
APPENDIX.
(21)
number and condition of his servile tenants, and the ex-
tent and nature of the services they were bound to per-
form. It was extremely essential for him to ascertain
■whether that part of his estate, which he retained in
his own hands, could be cultivated without the interven-
tion of free labourers : and hence we may see the neces-
sity, why a baron, on acquiring a fee, either by purchase
or inheritance, and the king's escheators, on a forfeiture
accruing to the crown, seldom failed to obtain full in-
formation relative to manorial rights, by means of an
inquisition, composed, in the latter instance, of freeholders
of the county, and in the former, most usually, of the
principal tenants of the manor.
It is from the inquests thus taken, that we can, per-
haps, obtain the best possible evidence relative to the
ancient state of agriculture in England. They often de-
scribe, very particularly, the quantity of arable, of pas-
ture, and of meadow in a manor; the times at which
the various operations of husbandry were carried on ; the
duty of agricultural servants ; their diet ; the customs
in harvest; and many other particulars highly illustra-
tive of the rural economy of ancient times. From such
records, it appears, that, before the reign of Edward the
First, the condition of villeins was greatly meliorated;
and that, instead of being obliged to perform every mean
and servile office, that the arbitrary will of the lord re-
quired, they had, at length, acquired a tenure in lands,
on condition of rendering services, which were either cer-
tain in their nature — as to reap the lord's corn, or cleanse
his fish-pond; or limited in their duration — as to harrow
two days in the year, or to employ three days in cart-
ing the lord's timber.
A tenant by villenage, thus circumstanced, was no
longer a villein. He was indeed bound to perform cer-
tain stipulated work for his lord, generally at sowing-
time and harvest, the only seasons which, in the rude
state of agriculture, were much attended to: but, at
(22)
APPENDIX.
other times of the year, he was at liberty to exercise his
industry for his own benefit. As early as the year 1257,
a servile tenant, if employed before Midsummer, received
wages : and in Edward the First''s reign, he was permitted,
instead of working himself, to provide a labourer for the
lord; from which it is obvious, that he must have some-
times possessed the means of hiring one : and, as it is not
natural to suppose, that a tenant by villenage had any
power of hiring the pure villein, (who, we have seen,
was annexed either to the land, or the person of his lord,)
labourers, who were thus hired by servile cultivators, it
is probable, were either tenants by villenage, who could
assist their neighbours on the spare days, in which they
were not bound to work for their lord ; or free labourers,
who existed (although perhaps not in great numbers) long
before the parliamentary notice taken of them in the Sta-
tute of Labourers, passed in 1350.
Treaty se on Surveyinge (said to have been " com-
pyled sometyme by Master Fitzherharde^'' p. 49 of reprint).
^Sir Anthony Fitzherbert lived in the reign of Henry the
Eighth. This Treatise on Surveying is assigned to him
on strong evidence, and clearly it was published in 1523,
about his time ; it shews that even then, barely more than
300 years ago, there were predial slaves in England in
sufficient numbers to form a marked feature in the com-
position of the community.
Item inquirendum est de customariis videlicet quot sunt
customarii et quantum terre quilibet customarius teneat,
quas operationes, et quas consuetudines facit, et quantum
valent opera et consuetudines cuiuslibet customarii per se
annum, et quantum redditum de redditu. assise per an-
num preter opera et consuetudines, et qui possunt talliari
ad voluntatem domini et qui non.
It is to be inquered of customary tenantes, that is to
wytte, howe many there be, and how moch land every te-
naunt holdeth, and what werkes and customs ho doth, and
APPENDIX. (23)
what the werkes and customs be worth of every tenaunt by
itself, and how moche rent by the yeare, above his werkes
and customes he doth pay, and which of them may taxe
their landes at the wyll of the lorde and whiche nat. Cus-
tomarye tenauntes are those that hold theyr landes of their
lord by copye of courte role, after the custome of the
manour. And there may be many tenauntes within the
same manor, that have 7io copies^ and yet holde by lyke
custome and seruyce at the wyll of the lorde. And in
myne opinion it began soone after the conquest, when
William conquerour had conquered the realme, he rewarded
all those that came with hym, in his viage royall, according
to their degree. And to honourable men he gave lord-
shyppes, maners, landes, and tenementes, with all the in-
habytantes, men and women dwellyng in the same, to do
with them at their pleasure.
And those honourable men thought, that they must
needes have servantes and tenantes, and theyr landes occu-
pyed with tyllage. Wherefore they pardoned the inha-
bytantes of their lyues, and caused them to do al maner of
servyce, that was to be done, were it never so wyle, and
caused them to occupie their landes and tenementes in
tyllage, and toke of them suche rentes customes and ser-
vices, as it pleased them to have. And also took all their
goodes and cattell at all tymis at their plesure, and called
them their bondmen, and sythe that tyme many noblemen
both spirituall and temporall, of their godly disposition
have made to divers of the said bondmen manumissions,
and granted them freedom and libertie, and set to them
their landes and tenementes to occupy after dyvers maner
of rentes, customes and servyces, the whiche is used in
dyuers places unto this day. Howe be it in some places,
the boundmen contynue as yet, the which me semeth is the
greatest inconuenience that now is suffered by the lawe,
that is to haue any christen man bounden to an other, and
to haue the rule of his body, landes and goodes that his
wife, children, and seruantes haue laboured for all theyr
(24) A I'l'K K U IX.
lyfe tyme to be so taken, like as and it were extorcion or
bribery. And many tymes by coulour thereof, there be
many freemen taken as bondmen, and their landes, and
goodes taken from them, so that they shall not be able to
sue for remedy, to proue themselfe fre of blode. And that
is moste commonly where the freemen have the same name
as the bondemen, or that his auncesters, of whome he is
comen, was manumysed before his byrthe. In such case
there can nat be to great a punyshment. For as me
semeth, there shulde be no man bounde, but to God, and
to his kynge, and prince ouer hym : Quia deus non facit
exceptionem personarum, for God maketh no exception of
any person. Wherefore it were a charitable dede to euery
nobleman both spirituall, and temporall, to do as they
wolde be done by, and that is to manumyse them that be
bond, and to make thtm fre of body and blode, reseruing
to them theyr rentes, customes, and seruices of olde tyme
due and accustomed, wherein they may get the prayers of
the partie, and remyssion of theyr offences, as in the gos-
pell. Eadem mesura, qua metiti, fueritis, metietur vobis.
The Latin words which head this extract, are part of
a statute of Edward the First ; but Fitzherbert, or the
author, be he who he may, does not mention in his com-
ment that any part of it relates to obsolete usages or laws.
Do not therefore the words et qui possunt talliari ad volun-
tatem domini et qui non indicate that this class of tenantry
were tallaged or taxed by those in whose estate they lived,
till their race became extinct .''
VI. Page 77 and 78.
Miiller treats the Perioeci as tributary communities, as
a sort of inferior allies, and denies that their condition ever
approached that of individual personal dependence: their
condition, he says, " never had the slightest resemblance to
that of bondage," (see Tuffnell and Letvis, p. 30). It strikes
APPENDIX. (25)
me, as it seems to have done Goettling/(see his Aristotle,
p. 4^5.) that if this is meant to apply to the Grecian Perioeci
generally, it is going rather too far. The Perioeci appear
to have been every where natives reduced by foreign in-
vaders to a state of subjection less servile in some districts
than in others, but very like bondage in many. Aristotle
must have seen them in such a state when he intimates that
they may very well occupy the place of the ^oiyXot, he pre-
fers as cultivators. See note to page 80. of text. See too
Gcettling's Aristotle, p. 473 " Urbs quaevis autem Cre-
*' tensium suos habebat Perioecos indigenas quidem sed
" bello victos, qui agrum ceteris colebant : nee tamen armis
** iis uti licuit nee gymnasiis. Id ex institutione Minois
supererat, ut auctor est Aristoteles.*"
Goettling on the other hand is of opinion, that this
class of people, neither slaves or freemen, but invested
with something of an intermediate character, existed in the
Dorian states alone ; and he says distinctly that they were
not to be found among the lonians, see Arist. Pol. by
" Goettling, p. 464. " Fundata erat autem hsec dorica con-
" stitutio duabus maxime rebus : diverse moderatae mul-
" titudinis jure et magistratuum descripta dignitate. Nam
*' quum civitates lonicce originis nonnisi liberos novissent
" et servos qtii civitatem constituerent, apud Dorienses me-
" dium quoddam genus inter liberos (Spartanos) et servos
*' (Helotes) reperiebatur, Peiioecorum nomine insignitum.'^
Surely this is a mistake, and one which would lead to con-
siderable misapprehension as to the mode in which the early
communities of Greece, Ionian as well as Dorian, were ori-
ginally constituted. Wherever a conquest took place, there
a class was established under some name or other, consisting
of the conquered natives, and ranking neither as citizens or
slaves. Such a class existed as we have seen among the
Ionian inhabitants of Attica. The fact seems to be, that
although this order in the state may be traced almost every
where in Greece, still it was in the Dorian states alone that
its presence and functions were necessary to support the
(26) APPEND IX.
very peculiar institutions established by the conquerors.
Elsewhere it might disappear or be transformed, as in
Attica, without the event''s affecting the constitution of
the state.
VII.
Travels in France, by Arthur Young, Esq. Vol. ii.
p. 151 The predominant feature in the farms of Piedmont
is metayers, nearly upon the same system which I have
described and condemned, in treating of the husbandry
of France. The landlord commonly pays the taxes and
repairs the buildings, and the tenant provides cattle, im-
plements, and seed ; they divide the produce. Wherever
this system prevails, it may be taken for granted that
a useless and miserable population is found. The poverty
of the farmers is the origin of it ; they cannot stock the
farms, pay taxes, and rent in money, and, therefore, must
divide the produce in order to divide the burthen. There
is reason to believe that this was entirely the system in
every part of Europe ; it is gradually going out every
where ; and in Piedmont is giving way to great farms,
whose occupiers pay a money rent. I was for sometime
deceived in going from Nice to Turin, and believed that
more of the farms were larger than is really the case,
which resulted from many small ones being collected into
one home-stead. That belonging to the Prince of Carig-
nan, at Bilia Bruna, has the appearance of being very
considerable; but, on inquiry, I found it in the hands
of seven families of metayers. In the mountains, from
Nice to Racconis, however, they are small; but many
properties, as in the mountains of France and Spain.
The Caval. de Capra, member of the Agrarian Society,
assured me, that the union of farms was the ruin of Pied-
mont, and the effect of luxury ; that the metayers were
dismissed and driven away, and the fields every where
depopulated. I demanded how the country came to have
the appearance of immense cultivation, and looked rather
APPENDIX. (27)
like a garden than a farm, all the way from Coni ? He
replied, that I should see things otherwise in passing to
Milan : that the rice culture was supported by great
farms, and that large tracts of country were reduced to
a desert. Are they then uncultivated ? No ; they are
very well cultivated ; but the people all gone, or become
miserable. We hear the same story in every country that
is improving: while the produce is eaten up by a super-
fluity of idle hands, there is population on the spot ; but
it is useless population : the improvement banishes these
drones to towns, where they become useful in trade and
manufactures, and yield a market to that land, to which
they were before only a burthen. No country can be
really flourishing unless this take place; nor can there
be any where a flourishing and wealthy race of farmers,
able to give money rents, but by the destruction of
metaying. Does any one imagine that England would
be more rich and more populous if her farmers were
turned into metayers ? Ridiculous. The intendant of
Bissatti added another argument against great farms;
namely, that of their being laid to grass more than small
ones ; surely this is a leading circumstance in their favour ;
for grass is the last and greatest improvement of Pied-
mont; and that arrangement of the soil which occasions
most to be in grass, is the most beneficial. Their mea-
dows are amongst the finest and most productive in the
world. What is their arable.'' It yields crops of five
or six times the seed only. To change such arable to
such grass, is, doubtless, the highest degree of improve-
ment. View France and her metayers — View England
and her farmers; and then draw your conclusions.
Wherever the country (that I saw) is poor and un-
watered, in the Milanese, it is in the hands of metayers.
At Mozzata the Count de Castiglioni shewed me the rent
book his intendcmt (steward) keeps, and it is a curious
explanation of the system which prevails. In some hun-
dred pages I saw very few names without a large balance
of debt due to him, and brouglit from the book of the
(28) APPENDIX.
preceding year : they pay by so many nioggii of all the
different grains, at the price of the year : so many heads
of poultry ; so much labour ; so much hay ; and so much
straw, &c. But there is, in most of their accounts, on
the debtor's side, a variety of articles, beside those of
regular rent : so much corn, of all sorts, borrowed of
the landlord, for seed or food, when the poor man has
none: the same thing is common in France, wherever
metaying takes place. All this proves the extreme poverty,
and even misery, of these little farmers ; and shews, that
their condition is more wretched than that of a day la-
bourer. They are much too numerous ; three being cal-
culated to live on one hundred pertichi, and all fully
employed by labouring, and cropping the land inces-
santly with the spade, for a produce unequal to the pay-
ment of any thing to the landlord, after feeding themselves
and their cattle as they ought to be fed ; hence the uni-
versal distress of the country.
Ibid. p. 155. — Estates in Bologna are very generally
let to middlemen, who re-let them to the farmers at half
produce, by which means the proprietor receives little
more than one half of what he might do on a better
system, with a peasantry in a better situation. The
whole country is at half produce; the farmer supplies
implements, cattle, and sheep, and half the seed ; the
proprietor repairs.
Ibid. pp. 155-56. — Letting lands, at money rent, is but
new in Tuscany ; and it is strange to say, that Sig. Pao-
letti, a very practical writer, declares against it. A farm
in Tuscany is called a podere : and such a number of them
as are placed under the management of a factor, is called
fattoria. His business is to see that the lands are ma-
naged according to the lease, and that the landlord has his
fair half. These farms are not often larger than for a pair
• of oxen, and eight to twelve people in one house ; some 1(X>
pertichi (this measure is to the acre, as about 15 to 38),
and two pair of oxen, with twenty people. I was assured
APPENDIX. (29)
that these metayers are (especially near Florence) much
at their ease; that on holydays they are dressed remark-
ably well, and not without objects of luxury, as silver,
gold, and silk ; and live well, on plenty of bread, wine,
and legumes. In some instances this may possibly be
the case, but the general fact is contrary. It is absurd
to think that metayers, upon such a farm as is cultivated
by a pair of oxen, can be at their ease; and a clear
proof of their poverty is this, that the landlord, who pro-
vides half the live stock, is often obliged to lend the
peasant money to enable him to procure his half; but
they hire farms with very little money, which is the old
story of France, &c. ; and indeed poverty and miserable
agriculture are the sure attendants upon this way of letting
land. The metayers, not in the vicinity of the city, are
so poor, that landlords even lend them corn to eat: their
food is black bread, made of a mixture with vetches ; and
their drink is very little wine, mixed with water, and
called aquarolle ; meat on Sundays only ; their dress very
ordinary.
Ibid. p. 157 In the mountains of Modena there are
many peasant proprietors, but not in the plain. A great
evil here, as in other parts of Lombardy, is the practice
of the great lords, and the possessors of lands in mort-
main letting to middle men, who re-let to metayers ; under
which tenure are all the lands of the dutchy.
Ibid. p. 158 — Appearances from Reggio to Parma are
much inferior to those from Modena to Reggio ; the fences
not so neat ; nor the houses so well built, white, or clean.
All here metayers ; the proprietor supplies the cattle, half
the seed, and pays the taxes; the peasant provides the
utensils. In the whole dutchies of Parma and Piacenza, and
indeed almost every where else, the farms must be very
small ; the practices I have elsewhere noted, of the digging
the land for beans, and working it up with a superfluity
of labour, evidently shew it : the swarms of people in all
the markets announce the same fact ; at Piacenza, I saw
(30) APPENDIX.
men, whose only business was to bring a small bag of
apples, about a peck ; one man brought a turkey, and
not a fine one. What a waste of time and labour, for
a stout fellow to be thus employed.
Travels in Switzerland^ by W. Coxe, Vol. in. p. 145. —
Another cause of their wretchedness proceeds from the
present state of property. Few of the peasants are land-
holders ; as from the continual oppression under which the
people have groaned for above these two last centuries, the
freeholds have gradually fallen into the hands of the nobles
and Grisons, the latter of whom are supposed to possess
half the estates in the Valteline. The tenants who take
farms do not pay their rent in money, but in kind ; a strong
proof of general poverty. The peasant is at all the costs
of cultivation, and delivers near half the produce to the
landholder. The remaining portion would ill compensate
his labour and expence, if he was not in some measure be-
friended by the fertility of the soil. The ground seldom
lies fallow, and the richest parts of the valley produce two
crops. The first crop is wheat, rye, or spelt, half of which
is delivered to the proprietor ; the second crop is generally
millet, buck-wheat, maaze, or Turkey corn, which is the
principal nourishment of the common people : the chief
part of this crop belongs to the peasant, and enables him in
a plentiful year to support his family with some degree of
comfort. The peasants who inhabit the districts which
yield wine are the most wretched : for the trouble and
charge of rearing the vines, of gathering and pressing the
grapes, is very considerable ; and they are so very apt to
consume the share of liquor allotted to them in intoxication',
that, were it not for the grain intermixed with the vines,
they and their families would be left almost entirely des-
titute of subsistence.
Besides the business of agriculture, some of the pea-
sants attend to the cultivation of silk. For this purpose
they receive the eggs from the landholder, rear the silk-
worms, and arc entitled to half the silk. This emplovmeiit
APPENDIX. (31)
is not unprofitable ; for although the rearing of the silk-
worms is attended with much trouble, and requires great
caution, yet as the occupation is generally entrusted to the
women, it does not take the men from their work.
With all the advantages, however, derived from the
fertility of the soil, and the variety of its productions, the
peasants cannot, without the utmost difficulty, and a con-
stant exertion, maintain their families ; and they are always
reduced to the greatest distress, whenever the season is un-
favourable to agriculture.
To the causes of penury among the lower classes above
enumerated, may be added the natural indolence of the
people, and their tendency to superstition, which takes
them from their labour. Upon the whole, I have not, in
the course of my travels, seen any peasantry, except in
Poland, so comfortless as the inferior inhabitants of this
valley. They enjoy indeed one great advantage over the
Poles, in not being the absolute property of the landholder,
and transferable, like cattle. They are therefore at liberty
to live where they chuse, to quit their country, and seek
a better condition in other regions ; a relief to which dis-
tress often compels them to have recourse.
Ibid. p. 143. — The cottages of the peasants, which are
built of stone, are large, but gloomy, generally without glass
windows : I entered several, and was every where disgusted
with an uniform appearance of dirt and poverty. The
peasants are mostly covered with rags, and the children have
usually an unhealthy look, which arises from their wretched
manner of living. Such a scarcity of provisions has been
occasioned by last year's drought, that the poor inhabitants
have been reduced to the most extreme necessity. The
price of bread was unavoidably raised so high, that in many
parts the peasants could not purchase it; and their only
food was for some time a kind of paste, made by pounding
the hulls and stones of the grapes which had been pressed
for wine, and mixing it with a little meal. Famine, added
to their oppressed situation, reduced the inhabitants to the
(32) APPEKDIX.
lowest condition of human misery, and numbers perished
from absolute want.
ally's Narrative and Researches among the VaudoiSy
4"C. p. 129. — The other cottages we entered were of a very
inferior order, and had but few of those little comforts,
with which in England we desire to see the poorest sup-
plied, and it was quite astonishing to compare the very
rude and insufficient accommodations of these people, with
their civility and information. In their mode of living,
or I might almost say, herding together, under a roof,
which is barely weather proof, they are far behind our
own peasantry, but in mental advancement they are just
as far beyond them. Most of them have a few roods of
land, which they can call their own property, varving in
extent, from about a quarter of an acre and upwards, and
they have the means of providing themselves with fuel,
from the abundance of wood upon the mountains.
The tenure, upon which land is hired, requires that the
occupier should pay to the proprietor half the produce of
corn and wine in kind, and half the value of the hay. The
indifferent corn-land yields about five fold, and the best
twelve fold. They seldom suffer the ground to lie fallow,
and the most general course is, wheat for two years, and
maize the third. The land is well manured from time to
time, and the corn is usually sown in August or September,
and cut in June. In the vale of San Giovanni, and in a few
other productive spots, hay is cut three times in the year.
Ibid. p. 128 On a crate suspended from the ceiling,
we counted fourteen large black loaves. Bread is an un-
usual luxury among them, but the owner of this cottage
was of a condition something above the generality.
VIII.
Note on Ryot Rents.
Col. Tod's services in Rajast^han were most distin-
guished. His elaborate work is a valuable contribution to
APPKNDIX. (33)
the literature of his country. Had I found that the facts
collected by such a person really contradicted the opinions
I have arrived at (in common, however, with the majority
of those who have considered the subject), I should have
been most ready to have re-examined those opinions, and
perhaps to have abandoned them. But the conclusions
which Col. Tod has drawn from his facts, seem to me to
require considerable modification before they can be recon-
ciled with the past and present condition of the rest of
India, or indeed of Rajasfhan itself as he depicts it.
The Colonel thinks, that the relations between the princes
of Rajast"'han and their nobles are similar to those which
existed, between the feudal nobility of Europe and their
sovereigns ; and that the ryots have an interest in the soil,
which he calls a freehold interest : and this he magnifies
and dwells on, with all the partiality of a man, who feels
a good natured pleasure in exalting the institutions of his
favorite Rajpoots.
The question to be discussed is, whether there is any
thing in the facts produced by Col. Tod or others, to con-
tradict the notion adopted in the text, that the soil of
India belongs to the sovereign and to the sovereign alone,
and that the occupiers have never, practically, any other
character than that of his tenantry, except in some small
districts, which form acknowledged exceptions to a general
rule. The mere existence of a feudal nobility, so far from
being inconsistent with the proprietary right of the sove-
reign, strongly confirms it. It is the one essential cha-
racteristic of a feudal system, that the land should be
granted by the sovereign, and on certain conditions. In
Europe the right of resumption slid out of the hands of
the monarchs *by imperceptible degrees. In Rajast'han
it has never escaped them at all. Only a century and
a half ago, so miserably unstable was the claim of sub-
ject nobles even to the temporary possession of any par-
ticular spot, that they were in the habit of changing their
lands every three years. " So late as the reign of Mana
(34) APPKNDtX.
Singrani (10 generations ago,) the fiefs of Mewar were
actually moveable, and little more than a century and
a half has passed since this practice ceased. Thus, a
Rahtore would shift with family, chattels and retainers,
from the north into the wilds of Chuppun, while the
Suktawut, relieved, would occupy the plains at the foot
of the Aravulli, or a Chondawut would exchange his
abode on the banks of the Chumbul with a Pramara or
Chohan from the Table Mountain, the eastern boundary
of Mewar. " Such changes" (Mr. Tod says in a note,)
" were triennial, and as I have heard the Prince himself
say, so interwoven with their customs was this rule, that
it caused no dissatisfaction : but of this we may be allowed
at least to doubt. It was a perfect check to the imbibing
of local attachment ; and the prohibition against erecting
forts for refuge or defiance, prevented its growth if ac-
quired. It produced the object intended, obedience to
the Prince, and unity against the restless Mogul". ^ — Tod's
Rajasfhan, p. l64.
Even now their rights remain much on the same
footing. In Europe, the necessity of admission by the
sovereign, the fine paid by the heir, and the renewal of
homage and fealty, kept alive the recollection at least,
of the past rights of the .sovereign. In Rajast'han, an
ctual resumption takes place by the Rajah on the death
)f every chief: and is conducted in such a manner, as
very impressively to exhibit the existing claims of the
monarch, and the entire [legal) dependence of all deri-
vative interests on his will. " On the demise of a chief,
the prince immediately sends a party, termed the ztibti
(sequestrator), consisting of a civil officer and a few sol-
diers, who take possession of the state (quere, estate) in the
prince's name. The heir sends his prayer to court to be
installed in the property, offering the proper relief. This
paid, the chief is invited to repair to the presence, when he
performs homage, and makes protestations of service and
fealty ; he receives a fresh grant, and the inauguration
APPENDIX. (35)
terminates by the prince girding him with a sword, in
the old forms of chivalry. It is an imposing ceremony,
performed in a full assembly of the court, and one of
the few which has never been relinquished. The fine
paid, and the brand buckled to his side, a steed, turban,
plume, and dress of honour given to the chief, the in-
vestiture is complete-, the sequestrator returns to court,
and the chief to his estate, to receive the vows and congra-
tulations of his vassals." — Tod's Rajasfhariy p. 158.
After these extracts, it can hardly be necessary to state,
that the doctrine as to the proprietary rights of the sove-
reign is not weakened by the condition of the noble Raj-
poots. It would be a curious subject, were this the place
for it, to trace the peculiar causes which have led the sove-
reigns of Rajast'han, to delegate, in a great measure, the
military defence of their frontiers to chieftains so nearly
resembling our feudal barons. Those causes may be par-
tially discerned in the ties of blood which connect the
sovereign and chiefs with their tribes — in the mountainous
character of their fortresses — in their being constantly
liable to hostile incursions — and in their almost perpetual
state of defensive war. We should, I think, after fairly
examining the causes and results of the Rajpoot system,
find much more reason to wonder, that the rights of the
sovereign to the soil have not oftener generated such a
system, than to conclude from its existence in Rajast'han
that there are no such proprietary rights.
I cannot quit the feudal part of the question, without
warmly recommending Col. Tod's book to the general
reader, and to the student of history, and of man. The
system of modified dependence on the chief for military
services, as established in this part of India, has produced
a resemblance to the state of Europe at a certain period of
the progress of feuds, which is most striking, interesting
and instructive. That resemblance may be trax;ed in the
tenures and laws of the Rajpoots — in the mixed poli-
tical results of these — both good and evil — and in th(^
c2
(36) APPENDIX
moral, and we may almost say poetical characteristics of
the population — in the deep and enthusiastic feeling which
accompany their notions of fealty — in the emulous courage,
the desperate fidelity of the nobles — and in many lofty
and romantic traits of manners worthy to have sprung
out of the very bosom of chivalry, and extending their
influence to the dark beauties of the Zenana, as well as
to their warrior kindred. High born dames in distress,
still there, as they once did in Europe, send their tokens
to selected champions, who whether invested with sovereign
power, or occupying a less distinguished station, are equally
bound to speed to their aid, under the penalty of being
stigmatized for ever as cravens and dishonored. Col.
Tod, himself, can boast an honor (well deserved by
zealous devotion and disinterested services,) which many
a preux chevalier would have joyfully dared a thousand
deaths to obtain, that of being the chosen friend and cham-
pion of more than one princess, whose regal, and in-
deed celestial, descents make the longest genealogies of
Europe look mean.
The next question arising out of Col. Tod\s book is
this. Are the ryots in Rajast'han practically^ as he con-
ceives them to be, freeholders in any sense in which an
English proprietor is called the freeholder of the land he
owns "^ I began in the text by remarking, that the ryot
has very generally a recognized right to the hereditary
occupation of his plot of ground, while he pays the rent
demanded of him : and the question is, whether that right
in Rajast'han practically amounts to a proprietary right or
not. Now a distinction before suggested in the text, seems
to afford the only real criterion which can enable us to
determine this question fairly. Is the ryot at rack-rent .''
has he, or has he not, a henejiciai interest in the soil .'' can
he obtain money for that interest by sale ? can he make a
landlord's rent of it.'' To give a cultivator an hereditary
interest at a variable rack-rent, and then to call his right
To till, a freehold right, would clearly be little better than
APl'KNDIX. (37)
mockery. To subject such a person to the payment of
more than a rack-rent, to leave him no adequate remu-
neration for his personal toil, and still to call him a free-
hold proprietor, would be something more bitter than mere
mockery. To establish by laM', and enforce cruelly in
practice, fines and punishments to avenge his running
away from his freehold, and refusing to cultivate it
for the benefit of his hard task master, would be to con-
vert him into a predial slave: and this, although a very
natural consequence of the mode of establishing such free-
hold rights would make the names of proprietor and owner
almost ridiculous.
The use of the criterion here pointed out, is made
very palpable by Sir T. Munro in a " Minute on the
State of the Country and on the Condition of the
People," dated the 31st of December, 1824. "Had the
public assessment, as pretended, ever been, as in the
books of their sages, only a sixth or a fifth, or even only
a fourth of the gross produce, the payment of a fixed
share in kind, and all the expensive machinery requisite
for its supervision, never could have been wanted. The
simple plan of a money assessment might have been at once
resorted to, in the full confidence that the revenue would
every year, in good or bad seasons, be easily and punctually
paid. No person who knows any thing of Inaia revenue
can believe that the Rayet, if his fixed assessment were only
a fifth or a fourth of the gross produce, would not every
year, whether the season were good or bad, pay it without
difficulty ; and not only do this, but prosper under it be-
yond what he has ever done at any former period. Had such
a moderate assessment ever been established, it would un-
doubtedly have been paid in money, because there would
have been no reason for continuing the expensive process of
making collections in kind. It was because the assessment
was not moderate, that assessments in kind were introduced
or continued : for a money rent equivalent to the amount
could not have been realized one year with another. The
(38) APPENDIX.
Hindoo Governments seem to have often wished that land
should be both an hereditary and a saleable property ,• but
they could not bring themselves to adopt the only prac-
ticable mode of effecting it, a low assessment. — Life of
Munro, Vol. iii. p. 331.
Ibid. p. 3S6. — " Rayets sometimes have a landlord*'s
rent ; for it is evident that whenever they so far improve
their land as to derive from it more than the ordinary profit
of stock, the excess is landlord's rent ; but they are never
sure of long enjoying this advantage, as they are constantly
liable to be deprived of it by injudicious over assessment.
While this state of insecurity exists, no body of substantial
landholders can ever arise ; nor can the country improve, or
the revenue rest on any solid foundation. In order to
make the land generally saleable, to encourage the Rayets
to improve it, and to regard it as a permanent hereditary
property, the assessment must be fixed, and more mode-
rate in general than it now is; and above all, so clearly
defined as not to be liable to increase from ignorance
or caprice."
Ibid. p. 339 " The land of the Baramahl will pro-
bably in time all become saleable, even under its present
assessment ; but private landed property is of slow growth
in countries where it has not previously existed, and where
the Government revenue is nearly half the produce ; and
we must not expect that it can be hastened by regulations
or forms of settlement, or by any other way than by ad-
hering steadily to a limited assessment, and lowering it
wherever, after full experience, it may still in particular
places be found too high. By pursuing this course, or,
in other words, by following what is now called the
Rayetwar system, we shall see no sudden change or im-
provement. The progress of landed property will be slow,
but we may look with confidence to its ultimate and general
fstablishment.
A P P K N 1) J X . (39)
Ibid. p. 344 " If we wish to make the lands of the
Rayets yield them a landlord's rent, we have only to lower
and fix the assessment, all then in time have the great
body of the Rayets possessing landed properties, yielding
a landlord's rent, but small in extent."
Ibid. p. 352. — " It may be said that Government having
set a limit upon its demand upon the Zemindar, he will
also set a limit to his demand upon the Rayet, and leave
him the full produce of every improvement, and thus
enable him to render his land a valuable property. But
we have no reason to suppose that this will be the case,
either from the practice of the new Zemindars during
the twenty years they have existed, or from, that of the
old Zemindars during a succession of generations. In
old Zemindarries, whether held by the Rajahs of the
Circars, or the Poligars of the more southern provinces,
which have from a distant period been held at a low
and fixed peshcush, no indulgence has been shown to
the Rayets, no bound has been set to the demand upon
them. The demand has risen with improvement, ac-
cording to the custom of the country, and the land of
the Rayet has no saleable value ; we ought not, therefore,
to be surprised that in the new Zemindarries, whose assess-
ment is so much higher, the result has been equally un-
favourable to the Rayets. The new Zemindarries will, by
division among heirs and failures in their payments, break
up into portions of one or two villages ; but this will not
better the condition of the Rayet. It will not fix the rent
of the land, nor render it a valuable property ; it will merely
convert one large Zemindarry into several small Zemindar-
ries or Mootahs, and Mootahs of a kind of much more in-
jurious than those of the Baramahl to the Rayets ; because,
in the Baramahl, the assessment of the Rayets' land had
previously been fixed by survey, while in the new Zemin-
darries of the Circars it had been left undefined. The
little will in time share the fate of the great Zemindarries ;
fhey will be divided, and fail, and finally revert to Govern-
(40) APPENDIX.
ment ; and the Rayets, after this long and circuitous course,
will again become what they originally were, the immediate
tenants of Government; and Government will then have it
in its power to survey their lands, to lower and Jix the
assessment upon them, and to lay the foundation of
landed property in the lands of the Rayets, where alone,
in order to be successful, it must be laid."
Yet with all these views of the difficulty of establishing
private property in land. Sir Thomas Munro declares the
ryot to be the true proprietor, possessing all that is not
claimed by the sovereign as revenue. This, he says, while
rejecting the proprietary claims of the Zemindars ; which
he thinks unduly magnified. — " But the Rayet is the real
" proprietor, for whatever land does not belong to the so-
" vereign belongs to him. The demand for public revenue,
" according as it is high or low in different places, and
" at different times, affects his share ; but whether it leaves
*' him only the bare profit of his stock, or a small surplus
" beyond it as landlord's rent, he is still the true proprietor,
" and possesses all that is not claimed by the sovereign as
"revenue." — Vol. iii. p. 340. I must refer the reader to
the Minute itself for Sir T. Munro's account of the bene-
ficial proprietary rights actually subsisting in Canara, and
of certain similar but subordinate and imperfect rights ex-
isting elsewhere. To comprehend the real condition of
southern India, it would be necessary to understand these
well. The plan of such a work as this will not allow me
to dilate on them.
Taking, then, the fact here established by Sir T.
Munro, that in spite of the hereditary claims of the ryot,
it is extremely difficult to discern, or even establish a real
beneficial landlord's interest among the cultivators, while
the assessment is high and variable, let us apply this to
Rajast'han, and to the statements of Col. Tod as to the
Ryot freeholders of Mewar. Let us examine, first, the
relation between the subordinate chiefs and their imme-
diate vassals. The chiefs, it will be remembered, repre-
APPENDIX. (41)
sent the sovereign on their estates. The vassals of Deo-
gurh sent to the British resident a long complaint of
their chief, to which Col. Tod often refers. The follow-
ing are some articles. " To each Rajpoot's house a
" churras, or hide of land was attached, this he has
" resumed.'''' " Ten or twelve villages established by his
" Puttaets he has resumed, and left their families to
" starve."*' While complaining of being driven from their
land, it will be observed that the proceeding is called by
themselves a resumption. " When Deogurh was esta-
" Wished, at the same time were our allotments : as his
" patrimony, so our patrimony : our rights and privileges
" in his family are the same as his in the family of the
" presence (the sovereign)." — Tod, p. 199.
Now if these last passages express, as I suspect they do,
the extent and ground of their claims ; we know how to
interpret them. If their interest in the soil was similar to
that of the chief in his estate, it was a grant from the sove-
reign on certain conditions ; resumable at pleasure, although
practically rarely resumed.
Let us next examine the more direct relation between
the sovereign and the cultivators on his domain. The
following decree is headed Privileges and Immunities
granted to the Printers of Calico and Inhabitants of the
Town of great Akola in Mewar. " Maharana Bheem Sing
*' commanding. Whereas the village has been abandoned,
" from the assignments levied by the garrison of Mandel-
" gurh, and it being demanded of its population, how it
" could again be rendered prosperous ; they unanimously
" replied, ' not to exact beyond the dues and contributions
*' ' established of yore ; to erect the pillar promising never
" ' to exact above half the produce of the crops, or to
" ' molest the persons of those who thus paid their dues.'"
Tod, p. 206.
I leave the reader to determine if this is the language
of a ruler dealing with a body of acknowledged freeholders^
(42) APPENDIX.
or of an Indian owner of ryot land, promising to moderate
his demands for the future.
But the most curious specimen of the actual condition
of the ryots of Rajast'han, is to be found in the account of
the management of Zalim Singh, the Regent of Kotah.
This chief was the real sovereign of Kotah ; though ad-
ministering its affairs in the name of a rajah fainean. His
administration was considered singularly prudent and vi-
gorous ; he is called by Col. Tod, the Nestor of India, and
is spoken of by Sir John Malcolm much in the same
spirit. The following is an extract from Sir John's
" Central India." " One of the principal of the Rajpoot
" rulers of central India, Zalim Singh, has a revenue
*' system, which, like that of his government, is entirely
" suited to his personal character. He manages a kingdom
" like a farm, he is the banker who makes the advances
" to the cultivators, as well as the ruler to whom they pay
" revenue : and his terms of interest are as high, as those of
*' the most sordid money brokers. This places the culti-
" vators much in his power, and to increase this dependence
" he has belonging to himself several thousand ploughs,
" with hired laborers, who are not only employed in re-
" coverinor waste lands, but sent on the instant to till those
^^ yields which the peasantry object to cultivate, from deem-
" ing the rent too high."" — Malcolm's Cent. India, Vol. ii.
p. 62.
Truly after reading these extracts, it is difficult to be-
lieve, that the cultivators of Rajast'han are in a much more
elevated condition, than those of southern India ; among
whom Sir Thomas Munro perceived, that it would be a
very slow and difficult process to establish landed property
and beneficial interests; although he recognized in them
the proprietors of all not claimed by the sovereign as re-
venue.
But there is a position of Col. Tod's which yet re-
mains to be noticed He cites the institutes of Menu,
to prove that lands throughout India, belongs to him who
APPENDIX. (43)
^first clears the wood and tills it ; and this quotation derives
rather more importance than would otherwise belong to it,
from the fact that the passage relating to the sovereign's
right to the soil, which is quoted in the text from Cole-
brooke's translation of the digest of Hindoo law, has been
suspected of having been forged by the natives employed
to compile that digest, in order to flatter some supposed
prepossessions of those who employed them. I, however,
still believe, that the law as translated by Mr. Colebrooke,
whether genuine or not, very accurately represents the
practical management of the soil of India for many ages.
He, (says Col. Tod, speaking of the ryot,) has nature
and Menu in support of his claim, and can quote the text,
alike compulsory on prince and peasant. " Cultivated land
" is the property of him who cut away the wood, or who
" cleared and tilled it^ The following is the text as it
stands in Haughton's edition of Menu :
On Judicature and Law, Private and Criminal, and on
the Commercial and servile Classes. — Haughton, p. 293.
44. Sages who know former times, consider this earth
(Prit'hivi) as the wife of King Prithu ; and thus they pro-
nounce cultivated land to be the property of him, who cut
away the wood, or who cleared and tilled it ; and the
antelope, of the first hunter who mortally wounded it.
Now had this passage been found in a part of the
code relating to landed property, it would at least have
carried with it the authority of Menu. In that case I
should have had to recall to the reader's recollection the
small value which Sir T. Munro's experience led him to at-
tach to the sayings of the ancient Indian sages, when ques-
tions arise as to the actual law or past practice of India
[see back, p. (37.)] But, in truth, the passage is found
in a very different part of the code ; a slight further
examination will convince the reader, that this mytholo-
gical sage was speaking of far other matters : and that
Col. Tod has fallen into a mistake, at which we musl
he allowed to smile.
(44) APPENDIX.
Menu is in fact deciding to whom the children shall
belong, born of an adulterous intercourse between a mar-
ried woman and her paramour. " Learn now that ex-
" cellent law universally salutary, which was declared,
" concerning issue, by great and good sages formerly
" born," and illustrating this in his own allegorical
fashion, he compares the earth to the lady ; and declares,
that he who received her virgin charms should be the
owner of all the progeny she might produce, under any
circumstances, however strong, of detected or permitted
faithlessness; and that as cultivated ground belonged to
him who first tilled it, and the antelope to the first
hunter who mortally wounded it, so " men who have
" no marital property in women, but sow in the fields
" owned by others, may raise up fruit to the husband,
" but the procreator can have no advantage from it.""
This subject Menu pursues from 31 p. 291 to 55 p. 295.
of Haughton, and follows up his illustration by putting
a variety of cases which I certainly shall not quote, but
which once read, will effectually (I should think) pre-
vent any person''s again referring to this passage, as a
grave authority for the laws relating to landed property
in India.
When deliberately speaking of the rights of the sove-
reign, the code uses a language in complete unison with
the actual usages of the country. " If land be injured
'* by the fault of the farmer himself, as if he fails to
" sow it in due time, he shall be fined ten times as much
" as the king"'s share of the crop that might otherwise have
" been raised : but only five times as much if it was the
" fault of his servants without his knowledge." — On Judi-
cature and Law, 243, p. 259 of Haughton's Translation.
The same imperfect right, however, to hereditary
occupation, while the demands of the sovereign are satis-
fied, which is every where conceded to the ryots, is also
still conceded in some parts of India (not in all) to the
first reclaimer of waste or deserted ground.
APPENDIX. (45)
Extracts from a firmaun of the Emperor Aurenzebe,
A. D. 1668, published by Mr. Patton in his Principles of
Jsiatic Monarchies. The firmaun consists of instructions
to the government collectors.
p. 343 " In a place where neither asher nor kheraj
(mowezzefF) are yet settled upon agriculture, they shall act
as directed in the law. In case of kheraj (mowezzeff), they
shall settle for such a rate, that the ryots may not be ruined
by the lands; and they shall not, on any account, exact
beyond (the value of) half of the produce, notwithstanding
any (particular) ability to pay more. In a place where
(one or the other) is fixed, they shall take what has been
agreed for, provided that in kheraj (mowezzefF) it does
not exceed the half (of the produce in money), that the
ryots may not be ruined : but if (what is settled appear
to be too much) they shall reduce the former kheraj to
what shall be found proportionable to their ability ; how-
ever, if the capacity exceeds the settlement, they shall
not take more."
p. 540 " They must shew the ryots every kind of
favour and indulgence ; inquire into their circumstances ;
and endeavour, by wholesome regulations and wise admi-
nistration, to engage them, with hearty good will, to
labour towards the increase of agriculture ; so that no
lands may be neglected that are capable of cultivation.
From the commencement of the j^ear they shall, as
far as they are able, acquire information of the circum-
stances of every husbandman, whether they are employed
in cultivation, or have neglected it : then, those who
have the ability, they shall excite and encourage to cul-
tivate their lands; and if they require indulgence in any
particular instances, let it be granted them ; but if, upon
examination, it shall be found, that some who have the
ability, and are assisted with water, nevertheless have
neglected to cultivate their lands, they shall admonish,
and threaten, and use force and stripes.''''
Yet in this and in another firmaun, also published
(46) APPENDIX.
by Mr. Patton, Aurenzebe speaks very tenderly of the
rights of the cultivators as proprietors, and is clearly
anxious to substitute a milder mode of management for
the one actually in use.
The case was much worse with the ryots when the
Mogul government was broken up.
Indian Recreations by the Rev. W. Tennant, Vol. iii.
pp. 188 — 90 " This aspect of the native governments
merits the greater notice, because it forms not an acci-
dental or temporary feature in their character, but a per-
manent state of society. It is a maxim among the native
politicians, to regard their " State as continually at war.'*
Hence their military chiefs are not permitted for a moment
to indulge the habits of civil life ; nor do they experience
the shelter of a house for many years successively. Their
camps are not broken up ; nor, except during a march,
are their tents ever struck. The intervals of foreign
hostility are occupied in the collection of revenue ; a mea-
sure, which in India is generally executed by a military
force, and is more fertile in extensive bloodshed and bar-
barity, as well as in the varied scenes of distress, than
an actual campaign against an avowed enemy.
The refractory Zemindars, (as they are denominated)
upon whom the troops are let loose, betake themselves,
on their approach, to a neighbouring mud fort ; one of
which is erected for protection, in the vicinity of almost
every village. There the inhabitants endeavour to secure
themselves, their cattle, and effects, till they are com-
pelled by force or famine to submit. The garrison is
then razed to the foundation, and the village burnt, to
expiate a delinquency, too frequently occasioned solely
by the iniquitous exactions of government itself.
In these military executions, some of the peasantry
are destroyed ; some fall victims to famine thus artificially
created, and not a few are sold, with their wives and
children, to defray their arrears to the treasury, or to
discharge the aggravated burdens imposed by the land-
APFK NUIX. (47)
holders. Such as survive, betake themselves to the woods,
till the departure of their oppressors encourages them to
revisit their smoking habitations, and to repair their ruins.
Thus harrassed by the injustice and barbarity of their
rulers, the peasantry lose all sense of right and wrong ;
from want, they are forced to become robbers in their
turn, and to provoke, by their fraud or violence, a re-
petition of the same enormities against the next annual
visitation of the army."
The fixing the poor ryot to the hereditary task of
cultivation, was evidently, under even the best of such
governments, a great gain to the sovereign, and a mise-
rable privilege to him.
Buchanan ""s Edit. Smith''s Wealth of Nations, Vol. iv.
App. p. 86. — " Mr. Place, to whom the management of the
jaghire, that surrounds the presidency of Madras, was
committed, when describing a certain species of tenant,
observes, that by granting them the lands " to them and
" their heirs for ever, as long as they continued in obe-
" dience to the Circar, and paid all just dues, he was
" enabled to convert the most stubborn soil and thickest
"jingle into fertile villages."
The same sentiments were expressed by Colonel Mun-
ro, who had the charge of several districts. He saw
clearly, that the high assessment on the land checked
agriculture and population ; and on this account, he
strongly recommended to government a remission of the
tribute. His views were admitted to be just; but the
public necessities were pleaded as an apology for a tax, the
effect of which it appears is to keep back the cultivation of
the country. — " It is the high assessment on the land," the
members of the board of revenue observe, " which Colonel
" Munro justly considers the chief check to population.
" Were it not for the pressure of this heavy rent, popula-
" tion, he thinks, ought to increase even faster than in
" America; because the climate is more favourable, and
(4-8) APPENDIX.
" there are vast tracts of good land unoccupied, which may
" be ploughed at once, without the labour or expence of
** clearing away forests, as there is above three millions of
" acres of this kind in the ceded districts. He is of opinion
" that a great increase of population, and consequently of
" land revenue, might be expected in the course of twenty-
" five years, from the operation of the remission. But a
" remission to a few zemindars, he apprehends, would not
" remedy the evil, nor remove the weight which at present
" depresses population.
" Under the system proposed, Colonel Munro con-
" ceives, that cultivation and population would increase so
" much, that, in the course of twenty-five years, lands for-
*' merly cultivated, amounting to star pagodas 5,55,962,
" would be relieved and occupied, together with a consider-
*' able portion of waste, never before cultivated. The ex-
" tension of cultivation, however, would not make the farms
*' larger, and thereby facilitate collection. The enlarge-
*' ment of farms or estates is at present prevented by the
" want of property ; hereafter it would be prevented by
" its division.
" This is the outline of Colonel Munro's plan, which
" is not less applicable to all tfee districts as yet unsettled,
*' than to the ceded districts ; and, if the exigencies of
*' government allowed of such a sacrijice as a remission of
" the present standard rents, to the extent of 25 per cent..,
*' or even of 15 per cent.., we should consider the measure
" highly advisable, and calculated to produce great ulterior
" advantages. Indeed, it would be absurd to dispute, that
" the less we take from the cultivator of the produce of his
" labour, the more flourishing will be his condition."'
" But, if the exigencies of government do not permit
" them to make so great a sacrifice ; if they cannot at once
** confer the boon of private property, they must be con-
" tent to establish a private interest in the soil, as efFectu-
" ally as they can under the farming system. If they
** cannot afford to give up a share of the landlord's renty
APPENDIX. (49)
" they must be indulgent landlords." See Report of Select
Committee^ Appendir.
For examples of the rate at which population and pro-
duce have increased under mild government, I must refer
the reader to accounts of Col. Read's administration of the
Mysore, Sir Thomas Munro's of the ceded districts, and
to Sir John Malcolm's picture of the rapid revival of cen-
tral India, after the destruction of the Mahratta sway.
I find that extracts would swell this Appendix too much.
ERRATA.
Hage I.Uu-
21. 13. for labor or read labor on.
1)3. Note, for Dixavu- read Dixme.
135. 22. for Sarmacan read Sarmacand.
144. 10. for supports read support.
155. 1. dele &0//1.
162. 22. for fty wAicA are read by rohicU (key arc.
174. Note, for 66. read 86.
188. 12. for purposes read purpose.
214. 21. for an unlimited read a limited.
265. 9. insert a semi-colon after cloi/i, and omit it after cotn.
1
ISBN D-t,7fl-DDD43-3
54950
?80678 000434
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11